Tweeting in the court room.
When Sara Ganim (the reporter who broke the Penn State story) spoke with our class earlier this sememster, she admitted that she is part of the new wave of crime reporters that uses Twitter in the courtrooms. Basically, as events occur during a case, the reporter(s) covering will whip out their cell phones in an effort to Tweet updates about the happenings in the court room.Recently, a judge in New York ruled that such antics in the courtroom was "distracting" and that he didn't want the court to turn into a circus. He then banned any reporter from tweeting in the courtroom during a high-profile case.
Do you think the judge had the right do this? Do you believe that Tweeting during a case is distraction? What do you think the future holds for social media and covering the courts?
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ReplyDeleteI don't think the judge should ban tweeting from the court room. I don't see how a person staring at their cell phone is any different then a person jotting down notes, and I bet no one around them would even notice. The court room is a public space, and live tweeting is just a new medium for journalist to keep the public informed about what is going on in there.
ReplyDeleteI can understand why the judge could construe this as distracting, however, tweeting in the courtrooms is an inevitable next move for the new wave of journalism. In fact, tweeting in the courts is a perfect example of what journalism does. It provides transparency of bureaucracies, and allows the public to gain insight into a situation that they may not otherwise be able to gain insight into. Many people want to know the important aspects of court cases without actually sitting in the courtroom themselves.
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