The document discusses several issues related to ethics in digital media and social media. It begins by looking at a hoax started on Facebook claiming that Bill Cosby had died, and the person who started the hoax admitting it was a joke. It then examines other cases of hoaxes and the ethical dilemmas they present. Throughout, it raises questions about the changing nature of journalism, privacy, and ethics in a world where information spreads rapidly online.

1. Bill Cosby Death Hoax Started To Teach
Internet Readers A Lesson?
Bill Cosby has died multiple times
since 2010, according to social
media, but while celebrity death
hoaxes have become a dime a
dozen these days, the most recent
Cosby hoax might have been
started to teach Internet users a
lesson.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/bill-cosby-death-hoax-facebook-twitter-_n_1840405.html

2. As "Bill Cosby Dead" became a trending
topic, Facebook group owner Gorman was
forced to come clean.
"My name is Jonathan Gorman and I am the
page admin/creator. With the recent
slowdown of likes and high amount of
attention from news sources. . .
I have come to the conclusion that I should
tell you all the truth. Bill Cosby is not
deceased," he wrote late Tuesday. "I made
around 315 THOUSAND people angry."
"I love you all for making me
laugh at your stupidity for the
past day and a half. You're
great," Gorman wrote.

3. NOT SO FUNNY FOR THIS JONATHON
http://www.theage.com.au/business/whitehaven-hoaxer-fronts-court-over-fake-anz-statement-20130723-2qfnf.html

4. MOYLAN ARGUES HIS ACTION IS JUSTIFIED
Embossed with the ANZ logo, the press
release quoted ANZ's group head of
corporate sustainability Toby Kent as
confirming the loan had been withdrawn -
the real Toby Kent exposed the ruse.
Mr Moylan yesterday said his actions were
justified. "ANZ customers have the right to
know their money is being invested in a
project which will force farmers off their
land and destroy 1360ha of endangered
koala habitat," Mr Moylan said.
Read more:
http://www.news.com.au/business/compani
es/hoaxer-jonathan-moylan-cost-nathan-
tinkler-180-million-after-whitehaven-share-
plunge/story-fnda1bsz-
1226549159715#ixzz2a1oBeDEE

5. THE WHITEHAVEN HOAX COST MONEY
Shares in Nathan Tinkler's coal company were placed in a trading halt after a
fake media release claimed funding for Whitehaven Coal had been withdrawn.
Whitehaven Coal shares plunged 6 per cent to $3.31, wiping $300 million off the
company's value, before trading was stopped just after noon (AEDT).
The fraudulent media release claimed ANZ had withdrawn $1.2 billion from
Whitehaven's Maules Creek project in north-east New South Wales.
It said the decision was made because of "volatility in the global coal
market, expected cost blow-outs and ANZ's Corporate Responsibility policy".
ANZ has confirmed the media release is a hoax and was not issued by the bank.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-07/whitehaven-coal-shares-plunge-after-media-hoax/4455362
Whether or not you agree with the actions of Mr Moylan may
depend on your attitude to coal seam gas mining.
It is a good example of the ethico-legal paradox in action.
Moylan‘s action was ethically motivated, but was a criminal action.

6. AN ETHICO-LEGAL PARADOX Legal principle
 Criminal law
 Common law
 Contracts and
commercial law
State regulation
Business Interest
Public Interest
Ethical principles
 Greater good
 Right-to-know
 Do no harm
• Law and regulation tend to trail
innovation and application.
• No prior knowledge or scrutiny of
apps
• Some uses can be problematic
• Does the public interest ever justify
breaking the law for greater ethical
reasons?
• The grey areas where law and ethics
collide
TECHNO-LEGAL TIME-GAP

7. • Convergence + Speed
• Social & Mobile
• New applications coming on stream
• Massive amounts of new and
improved data
• A techno-legal time-gap
• Legal, regulation , custom and practice
• Applications and Arguments
• Political economy
• Ethico-legal issues & paradox
• Privacy
• Power & influence
• Democracy
• Media Freedom &
Regulation
• Free speech
• Commercial Speech
• Hate speech
• Privacy / Data Privacy
• The ethico-legal paradox
• Accountability
• UGC
• Liability
• Surveillance
• Commercial
• Social
• Suppression
• Counter Surveillance
CLOSING THE GAP?
BRIDGING THE PARADOX?
http://digital-paradox.net/

8. DIGITAL WHISTLEBLOWERS
Modern day whistleblowers expose
both the ethico-legal paradox and the
techno-legal time-gap.
In 1971, when Daniel Ellsberg leaked
the Pentagon Papers it was literally
lots of paper.
Today digital files can be
compressed and carried on a CD-
ROM.
Without data crunching capability
Wikileaks would still be cataloguing
military cables.
L-R: Edward Snowden, Julian
Assange, Daniel Ellsberg

9. IF THEY CAN, THEN SO CAN WE
Old rules no longer apply
• Harry‟s Privates y v Royal
Privacy
• Right to know invoked
• Becomes a „free speech‟
argument for British tabloids
The Sun last week said it was
"absurd" to continue the British black
out and defended publishing two
photos of the naked prince on the
grounds that they were freely
available across the internet,
including on the websites of
mainstream media organisations
such as CNN.
If material is in the public domain and
everyone is talking about it, yet we ignore it,
we might be seen as missing out on an
important element of a news story and failing
to inform our users.
• Sun Editorial

10. HARRY NO-PANTS IS FAIR GAME • Now it‟s online we have
to publish too
• Public interest defence
• Harry compromised his
own privacy
• We respect the privacy of
the respectable royals
(Wills & Kate)
• Laddish
behaviour, Harry‟s letting
off steam
• Just doing normal stuff
(according to friends)
• Being „royal‟ is not
„normal‟
There is a clear public interest in publishing
the Harry pictures, in order for the debate
around them to be fully informed.
The photos have potential implications for
the Prince‘s image representing Britain
around the world.
• The Sun‘s editorial defence
"Prince Harry. Give him a break. He may be on the public payroll
one way or another, but the public loves him, even to enjoy Las
Vegas.‖
Rupert Murdoch‘s tweet
The tabloids and the gossip mags take
advantage of digital publication to justify their
own publication despite an agreement with the
palace not to invade royal privacy.
The hypocrisy in this case is
staggering

11. RUPERT‟S “BART SIMPSON MOMENT”
• Gathers the troops for a pep talk –
don‟t worry Uncle Rupert will look
after you
• Says the police are incompetent and
that the investigation is wrong
(after cooperating and creating the
problems for his journalists)
• Says that paying police and officials
is endemic in the British newspaper
industry
• When he‟s caught (and only when
he‟s caught) sends an apologetic
letter to the committee investigating
his behaviour
“I didn‟t do it”
Which Rupert
Murdoch should we
believe?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/caught-on-tape-rupert-murdoch-apologises-for-slur-on-met-police-in-secret-sun-recording-
8718084.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2355600/Rupert-Murdoch-caught-tape-branding-police-totally-incompetent.html

12. A NEW MEME – ABANDON PRIVACY FOR PRIVATES
• People prepared to give up privacy to
back Harry
• A new „Rule Britannia‟
• Tabloid media uses it as an excuse to
push the boundary of „taste‟ under cloak
of public interest
• The feedback loop between social media
and the mainstream is now 24/7 in real
time
• Facebook is now plundered for anything
of gossip value
• Some people will do anything for social
media „fame‟
Facebook is like a new frontier where
anything goes.
If it‘s on Facebook and goes viral then it will
be on the 6pm news and in the papers.

13. MILITARISING THE MEME
D Squadron, the King‘s Royal Hussars, posing
naked with tanks
in Helmand, Afghanistan
#salute4harry
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2194521/Prince-Harry-Facebook-group-strips-support-party-loving-royal-naked-Vegas-photos-furore.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Did anyone stop to think that this might
be just a little bit offensive in a
predominantly Muslim country?

14. “WHAT STAYS IN VEGAS?” • A breach of a code of silence
• It is an unwritten „code‟
• But what about the
journalist‟s ethical code?
• Who upholds the public
interest?
• Who breached the code?
• Which code takes
precedence?
• Story now takes precedence
for the news media
• Gossip as reportage
"Las Vegas is about adult freedom,"
a spokeswoman for the [tourist]
board told USA Today. "It's important
for friends to know what activities
can be shared publicly and what
activities are protected by the code."
Sexual double standards apply – Harry‘s behaviour
would not be excused and laughed off if it was a
Princess.
A woman in this situation would be branded a ‗slut‘

15. DETAILS AND NAMES LINKED TO HARRY
• Paparazzi flock to story
• „fake‟ Facebook
accounts
• „protected‟ Twitter
accounts
• Fan Pages on Tumblr
• Social Surveillance of
Harry has been
unleashed
http://www.christianpost.com/news/prince-harrys-fans-harrassed-for-secrets-on-
spike-wells-facebook-account-80664/
The story rebounds between MSM and social media. Desperate for an angle,
reporters start trying to establish who is behind several fake accounts
allegedly linked to the Prince.
Should Harry have responded?
How can he? The level of security and pampering he gets does not
even suggest it is possible.
What could he say: ―Yes I snorted cocaine.‖ or issue a denial and
then have the Miley Cyrus moment when pictures emerge?
Rich and spoilt, Harry is a law unto himself, it seems and

16. A HASTY CORRECTION • Verification – after
publication
• Authentic - questionable
• Voyeurisitc view of a
very public private life
• Vicarious pleasures /
entertainment / values
• Race to the bottom?
Harry‟s legs
Christianpost.com
changes its mind about a
source
On the Internet you are never wrong
for long. Publish all the gossip and
rumour, you can retract it later.
And don‘t forget the ‗clickbait‘

17. NEW TIN, SAME SARDINES? • How public is Facebook?
• How do you manage
contacts who you know
on Facebook?
• Can you use false profiles
on Facebook to gather
information?
• Is it OK to discuss
ongoing court cases on
Facebook?
• Courtroom Tweeting
• Twit Def and stupid tweets
• Personal v Professional
social media profiles
For the most part, the five main issues
that are causing the most problems, are
issues that have always been problematic
– they have just been transplanted into
digital scenarios instead.
These five issues are:
1. copyright
2. verification
3. protecting sources
4. gathering information using false
pretences
5. contempt of court
Is this all there is to it?
Claire Wardle Networked Knowledge blog
http://clairewardle.com/2011/09/21/journalism-ethics-in-a-social-media-world/

18. WHEN IS A BEER AD NOT A BEER AD?
• Sponsor responsible for user
comments on social media sites
• Encouraging comments as a form
of advertising and value add for the
brand
• Facebook‟s commercial rules?
• Political economy and ethics /
liability
When a user ―likes‖ a brand post, or
expresses a view in a comment on a brand
page, they push the brand out into their
peer network attached to their own identity.
For VB to claim that User Comments aren‘t
advertisements is to suggest that they
don‘t create value for the brand.
http://theconversation.edu.au/ruling-on-alcohol-brands-facebook-sites-will-shake-up-social-media-marketing-8974
stricter monitoring of Facebook pages by
brands was against the ―spirit of social
media‖ and ―commercially unviable‖.
Advertisers could abandon Facebook as an
interactive advertising channel because of the
difficulty monitoring conversation on their pages.

19. SMIRNOFF – ENABLING, NOT ADVERTISING
• Do Facebook users
understand the dynamics or
are they being used as useful
idiots?
With several thousand images online, each
time a fan tags, likes or comments an
image, it pushes that image out into the
news feeds of their hundreds of friends.
These images have a targeted and
promotional character.
They embed the brand within the mediation
of nightlife on Facebook.
A precedent (appeal pending) regarding
liability for ethical behaviour in social
media

20. WHAT ABOUT RACISM – „OFFENSIVE HUMOUR‟
• Another free-speech
argument?
• Facebook eventually
closed it
• US v Australian
jurisdiction
• Invoking 1st
Amendment
The Aboriginal Memes Facebook
page carried hundreds of images
indigenous Australians as drunks and
welfare cheats.
The Australian Communications and
Media Authority is investigating
Race Discrimination Commissioner
Helen Szoke said it could breach
Australian anti-discrimination laws.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Facebook-removes-racist-Aboriginal-Memes-

21. WHO IS A JOURNALIST?
• Barriers to entry falling
• Are bloggers part of the
journalism community?
• Is there a useful
demarcation between
professional and amateur
• Should the rules be the
same or different for
professional and amateur
reporters?
The ‗democratization‘ of media –
technology that allows citizens to engage
in journalism and publication of many kinds
– blurs the identity of journalists and the
idea of what constitutes journalism. (Ward)
http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/resources/digital-media-ethics/
Journalism is not content. It need not be a
profession or an industry. It is not the
province of a guild. It is not a scarcity to be
controlled. It no longer happens just in
newsrooms. It is no longer confined to
narrative form.
Jeff Jarvis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2013/jul/11/who-is-journalist-bradley-manning-trial

22. TODAY‟S ETHICS NEED A SHAKE DOWN
To what extent existing media ethics is
suitable for today‘s and tomorrow‘s news
media that is immediate, interactive and
―always on‖ – a journalism of amateurs and
professionals?
Stephen Ward, Digital Media Ethics
http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/resources/digital-media-ethics/

23. DIGITAL FAULT LINES
Unresolved tensions between
‗traditional‘ journalism and the
technological capacities of
‗News 2.0‘
Heightening tension between
local and global journalism
accuracy, pre-publication
verification, balance, impartialit
y, and gate-keeping

24. TWITTER
• Should we really be
trying for objectivity
here?
• Is Twitter for
professional or
personal use?
• Should reporters
separate the personal
and the professional?
• What about being
„genuine‟ in social
media spaces?
One of the key contemporary journalistic
dilemmas — how to define or redefine
objectivity in the social media age — is
being played out live on Twitter.
Reporters‘ use of the platform to express
feelings and opinions on a range of issues
has raised red flags about professional
conduct and bias.
(Juie Posetti http://newmatilda.com/2009/06/16/twitters-
difficult-gift-journalism)

25. ANONYMITY ONLINE
• Allowing anonymous
comments on news sites
• Verification of Twitter &
other accounts as
genuine
Traditional journalistic codes of ethics warn
that people may use anonymity to take
unfair or untrue ―potshots‖ at other people,
for self-interested reasons.
Journalists should avoid anonymous
sources in most cases
Online anonymity is easy and provides a
cover for uncivil discourse

26. THE NEW FRONTIERS • The eyewitness
• The accidental journalist
• The Whistleblower
• The citizen journalist
• The amateur
• The blogger
• The tweeter
The ethical challenge is to redefine what
independent journalism in the public
interest means for a media where many
new types of journalism are appearing and
where basic principles are being
challenged.
(Ward)

27. NEW WAYS TO INVADE PRIVACY
• The right to be forgotten v.
the right to do business
• Technical solutions like “Do
no track” code
Changes to the Privacy Act mean digital
publishers face fines of more than $1
million unless they are transparent about
personal data they collect and use.
The new rules come as the traditional print
media targets users who now prefer to use
mobile devices through social media sites
like Facebook and Twitter.
ABC News 1 July 2013
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-01/media-companies-face-
challenge-to-adapt-to-new-privacy-laws/4791496

28. IMAGE MANIPULATION
The digital
manipulation of
images is now very
easy and
widespread
It‟s not just the
airbrushing of
celebrities in
fashion and gossip
magazines
What about the
manipulation of
images from a war
zone?
Adnan Hajj's 2006 digitally manipulated
photograph of the aftermath of an IDF
attack on Beirut. (Smoke was added.)