Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy the Internet Failed in the Search for the Batman Shooter
By Will Oremus
Posted Friday, July 20, 2012, at 2:17 PM ET
19
Google search for James Holmes Facebook profile
Web searches for clues to the Batman shooter's motivations led to cases of mistaken identity.
The Internet has trained us to assume that the intimate details of peoples lives must be out there on the Web somewhere, just waiting for us to enter the right Google search term or trawl the right social media platform.
News of the massacre at the Batman screening in Aurora, Colorado this morning sent a thousand journalists (and citizen journalists) to their browsers, racing to be the first to uncover the telling detail about the suspect. Would James Holmes turn out, like Tucson gunman Jared Lee Loughner, to have confessed in an online gaming forum to hav(ing) aggression 24/7? Might he have penned online political screeds, like Norway shooter Anders Behring Breivik?
Maybe. But if so, they werent forthcoming Friday morning. Mashables Lance Ulanoff writes of spending all morning scouring Facebook, Twitter, even MySpace for clues and coming up with absolutely nothing. I cannot get over what an online ghost Holmes appears to be, Ulanoff wrote.
At least Ulanoff came up with nothing. Others came up with something worsemisinformation and mistaken identity. There is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, uh, page, ah, on the Colorado tea party site, talking about him joining the tea party last year, ABC News Brian Ross excitedly informed milions of Good Morning America viewers Friday morning. Ross and the news organization apologized soon after, acknowledging that the report was incorrect.
<snip>
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/07/20/james_holmes_facebook_mistaken_identity_why_social_media_won_t_tell_us_the_batman_shooter_s_motive.html
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
3 replies, 1203 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (4)
ReplyReply to this post
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Why the Internet Failed in the Search for the Batman Shooter (Original Post)
cali
Jul 2012
OP
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)2. It wasn't an internet failure,
it was a journalism failure. There was a dozen James/Jim Holmes in Aurora/Denver alone... probably hundreds in the US. Picking out one, and rushing it to "breaking news" status without vetting is simply irresponsible.
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)3. They just don't yet know what nickname he used online
That will come out once his computer/phone are examined.