Stubenville Rape Trial was not compromised by Anonymous

Review the following article: High School Football Players Accused of Rape: Lawyers Slam Anonymous Release of Video, Photo.

Was the release of the video in keeping with the journalists’ Code of Ethics? Why or why not? Based on the information in this article, what do you believe the outcome of the case should be?

This is a terrible article to link to. First, go read the wikipedia page and get all the facts. Yes, I trust wikipedia more than a news company- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steubenville_High_School_rape_case Of COURSE the prosecution of a case is not going to like that proof exists that their client is guilty. It doesn't violate their right to a fair trial because the jury was going to see those photos anyways. The article by Oppel has an excellent account of the fact that the perpetrators were sentenced because of their social media and text message threads (2013). 

Rape cases are not fair. Getting a fair trial as a rape victim is a joke. Anonymous is not a journalist. They are a web group. Thus they are not accountable to the journalists code of ethics. The video doesn't contain the victim or the men being tried, just a third party making jokes about rape. I would  still say that their actions were still following the code of ethics. They were  "Tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so"("SPJ Code of Ethics," n.d.). Anonymous wanted to show how rape culture was so pervasive in our towns when Stubenville was trying to cover it up. 

I understand in the story that they mentioned the victim being revictimized by a photo being released without her consent. However it was already all over social media!  A similar story happened recently and the girl came right out with her name to state how horrible it was ("16-year-old Girl Says Her Rape Went Viral, Disturbing Photo Being Mocked on Social Media," 2014). The girl in Stubenville's name was never released. That is actually increadibly impressive. I did not look at the photos but it possible and likely that they did not show the victims face so she was not identifiable. Yes, she was probably upset to see them being spread even more widely over the internet but she likely was avoiding social media after her peers had ripped her apart. You could say that Anonymous was not " Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects" ("SPJ Code of Ethics," n.d.). However, even the judge admitted that the perpetrators could have been tried as adults. Many adults were later tried due to the video surfacing because it revealed the extent of the cover-up going on through out town. 

The problem is the lack of prosecution in rape cases. I understand the intent was to make sure that the rapists were properly punished by society because they didn't receive fair sentences. All of the boys in the video were not punished. I know what the outcome of the case was, and unfortunately I googled for updates and found even more depressing news. One of the convicted criminals was released and is already back on the football team (Augustine, 2014)!

References

16-year-old girl says her rape went viral, disturbing photo being mocked on social media. (2014, July 10). Retrieved from http://myfox8.com/2014/07/10/16-year-old-girl-says-her-rape-went-viral-disturbing-photo-being-mocked-on-social-media/

Augustine, B. (2014, August 12). Ma’lik Richmond, convicted in Steubenville rape case, returns to football team . Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ma-lik-richmond-convicted-steubenville-rape-case-returns-football-team-article-1.1900655

High school football players accused of rape: Lawyers slam Anonymous release of video, photo. (2013, January 4). Retrieved from http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/04/16352593-high-school-football-players-accused-of-rape-lawyers-slam-anonymous-release-of-video-photo?lite

Oppel, R. A. (2013, March 17). Ohio teenagers guilty in rape That social media brought to light. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/us/teenagers-found-guilty-in-rape-in-steubenville-ohio.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Reisenwitz, C. (2014, April 02). Brad Pitt's Steubenville film will help fight rape culture. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cathy-reisenwitz/brad-pitts-steubenville-f_b_5078616.html?utm_hp_ref=steubenville-rape

SPJ code of ethics. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19, 2014, from http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Multimedia

What a relevant week to be discussing multimedia in news. Journalists are being jailed, getting tear gas thrown at them, and this is all just in one city in America. What multimedia you should include in a post depends on the content and audience. Scientific journal articles often include graphs and charts with the data laid out in a more visual manner. This doesn't mean that more graphs are always better. Charts should never be accepted as true without careful inspection. 
Newspaper articles should almost always have a picture. I like that mashable has little headshots of the authors with every story. Stories about race written by white people should be read in a different light. Photojournalists have a difficult job, as was revealed in Ferguson this week. An Al Jazeera camera team was setting up video equipment when police in riot gear threw tear gas at them. They quickly fled their equipment and then a swat team came and turned off lights and pointed cameras down. Thankfully, another news station was more hidden from view and able to take a video of this happening. In our day and age of police violence and the he said, she said following police brutality cases, video provides solid proof. Otherwise we might be able to ignore news that shakes our sense of right and wrong. This is a photo of a local reporter who was one of the first to get to the Ferguson protests-

What kind of tone does that set for the story? 
And this is just for actual news articles. What about stories? One website that has great stories is medium. Apparently, some people thought that this article on helping self-recognized pedophiles was incredibly disturbing. But it reveals an opportunity for art to really change the direction of a story. The point was not to create shame or repeal people but to open our eyes to others reality. So, the art director has the job of setting the tone. They wrote a detailed article about how many steps they had to go through to get to the finished product. 
We live in a world that never stops moving. There are always distractions. How are people supposed to be able to concentrate on reading a long article. Scientists are always releasing new articles that say if we want to be able to remember more or this or that then we should be listening to certain music while reading. This weeks new finding was that music with a heavy bass line makes people feel and act more powerful.  But as a I am not a auditory learner, I find it problematic when other people choose the music. I would rather play my strange collection of music that I find helps me focus. I remember the days of myspace and geocities pages being all over burdened with multimedia. My page would automatically start playing a whole playlist when it loaded and the pause button wasn't easy to find. There were sparkly banners everywhere. I don't like NPR articles that are only audio, no transcriptions. 
Overall, multimedia is woven into every part of our online environment. It is generally a great benefit of our technological advancements but can be a burden. Editors and content creators should always be thoughtful when choosing what types of multimedia to include in their pages.

Blogging Best Practices

One of my favorite blogs is the smitten kitchen. The author is a NYC woman with a small kitchen and small family who writes detailed descriptions of food and recipes from various sources. Most of the recipes are not unique but instead she will simplify something in a fancy food magazine so you don't have to find that expensive ingredient or use so many pots. Her writing is very accessible and relatable. She doesn't violate any of the rules laid out in the food blogger code (Burton & Greenstein, 2009). She generally posts about 3-5 times a week. She shares enough life details that you almost feel like you have gotten to know her as she announced when she was pregnant and then the baby photos. Her blog is so popular she wrote a cookbook and went on a nationwide supporting book tour. Her recipes are just what she is cooking but she loves fresh fruit and vegetables so the recipes are generally timely. Her site itself is simple, clean and easy to navigate. She owns her own domain name and doesn't have intrusive ads, she buries them at the bottom of the post. There is not a way to share directly on facebook but there is the more important pinterest sharing tool. However it is not as obvious as on other webpages. 



My recommended best practice echos what the article by Chelidonis said, choose and stick to a topic (2011). If you are writing a cooking blog it should be more friendly and less formal than a blog about women's rights. Your topic should guide all other aspects of your blog. Is it important that people share it widely? Then incorporate easy, large, obvious sharing tools. If it is just for a smaller audience, you may not need this. 

Burton, B., & Greenstein, L. (2009, April 30). The code. Retrieved August 7, 2014, from http://foodethics.wordpress.com/


Chelidonis, I. (2011). 12 steps to launch a successful blog. Retrieved from http://www.dailyblogtips.com/steps-to-successful-blog/

Press Release: Joe Paterno dead from cancer complications January 22, 2012

Facebook Post: Joe Paterno dead from cancer complications at age 85: Full story here.

Today, the Paterno family released news that the former Penn State football coach died from complications of lung cancer. His family has been at his bedside at the hospital in State College since he was admitted nine days ago. His son Scott released to the public in November that Joe had a treatable form of lung cancer. PA Governor Tom Corbett released this statement " As both man and coach, Joe Paterno confronted adversities, both past and present, with grace and forbearance."



Joe Paterno. (2014, July 22). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Paterno

Statements on the death of Joe Paterno. (2012, January 22). Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/22/statements-on-death-joe-paterno/#ixzz1kFNsNoyu