When reporters go into MySpace

CHAPEL HILL -- Call it a reporting ritual for the Information Age. When breaking news involves someone under 21, a reporter's first stop is likely to be a social network site such as Facebook or MySpace, where millions of young adults disclose personal information that may take the form of text, photos, audio and video.

As a source, these kinds of sites can provide reporters with rich details that can add valuable context to a story. But by their very nature, social network sites are mostly unreliable. Since the object of the sites is to befriend as many other users as possible, users tend to exaggerate claims or fabricate information to appear more interesting or "fun" to their peers.

The resulting photos (think drunken clowning at a frat party) and text ("dude, you were so wasted last night") are but a glimpse into someone's persona -- just ask any college student who's been disciplined for posting evidence of prohibited on-campus activity, or passed over for an internship because his Facebook profile suggested he would spend more time partying than working -- "That's not really me," or, "I just put that on there so my friends could see it."

Taken out of context and dropped into news stories, mined content from social network sites does little to help audiences understand the news -- and that's a fundamental obligation of journalism.

Take, for instance, news coverage of the gruesome murder in Italy of college student Meredith Kercher. Reporters mined the MySpace account of her roommate, Amanda Knox, who was accused of the killing with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and implied its contents held clues to their innocence or guilt.

The "evidence" included a 30-second video in which Knox appears to be drunk, and photos of the couple dressed in Halloween costumes they accessorized with a gun and meat cleaver. If that's proof of their propensity to kill, then Chapel Hill police better up their numbers for the Halloween festivities on Franklin Street.

And yet reporters can make a persuasive argument for using self-posted Web content in some news stories.

For example, when journalists reported the tragic death of Missouri teenager Megan Meier, who corresponded online with a boy who was really a character created by a vindictive neighbor, they included details of the correspondence, which took place on MySpace. The exchanges between Meier and "Josh Evans" were affectionate, but then abruptly turned cruel.

The information, which was provided to reporters by the girl's father (who could verify it), added important context to the story by indicating the nature and duration of the correspondence and the specific content that preceded her suicide. In addition, by including MySpace content, journalists issued a renewed warning to parents that social network sites can be an avenue for abuse and harassment among young people.

In another story, after an 18-year-old shot and killed eight people in his high school in Finland last month, reporters noted the gunman had posted videos on the file-sharing site YouTube that warned of a bloodbath at the school. A series of video clips showed him loading and firing a handgun, and images from the Columbine school shootings, the 1993 Waco siege and the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995. The inclusion of the YouTube content helped audiences understand, in part, the gunman's preoccupation with violence and showed that the killings were premeditated.

Critics argue that reporters have no place on social network sites where content is intended to be private among users. But as a reporting strategy, the use of these sites is less about privacy than it is about context and reliability.

Citing the source of information is rarely an acceptable substitute for fact-checking. Indeed, as Facebook and MySpace users have become aware of and resentful toward trolling reporters, they have deliberately misled them with hoax sites, fake identities and altered photos. As a result, news organizations have ended up with virtual egg on their faces, or worse.

Just as the Internet has become an essential tool of news reporting, social network sites are a reasonable means to background young people who haven't generated a paper trail. But Facebook and MySpace pages are not very helpful in understanding someone's character, interests or actions. Reporters must work the phone, or better yet, leave the computer and the newsroom to find other sources to shed light on their subjects.

Above all, there must be a compelling argument for using content found on social network sites. If it has no relationship to the news, and if it does not add substantive value to the story, then it's virtually useless.

(Barbara Friedman is assistant professor and Meredith Golden is a junior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill. Friedman is the author of "Web Search Savvy: Strategies and Shortcuts for Online Research.")