We can handle the truth

Details from the Williams sentencing hearing this week have sparked debate about the appropriateness of the news reported.  What does it say about our media diet?  Mine?

I found it hard to look at the events of this week as a great big story of national interest.  Just the presence of the vans and satellites, the lighting equipment and reporters milling around outside the otherwise quiet courthouse on Pinnacle Street, particularly at night, helped steer me away from the national newspapers and TV news.

It was a troubling case -- to say the least -- and, though I'm not a resident of Tweed, nor am I part of what appears to have been Williams target demographic, I needed the comfort of knowing our own local newspaper would have our best interests at heart when they covered this story.

I had faith that our local reporters would leave the salacious details to the Toronto Star and the Sun (both of which have edited online the loudly screaming headlines from their print stories, though here's a good example), that they would put this story in context for us.  And they did.  They did a great job.

Criticism has been most harshly reserved for Twitter, the microblogging website that limits user updates to 140 characters.  Print newspapers are expected to summarize the previous days' events and create a document of record, even when stories continue to unfold.  Television news can provide video, and though it can react and report quicker, it is still limited to pre-determined broadcast times (except for 24-hour channels) and, more importantly, the responsibility to summarize and explain what's going on.

The Internet, and especially Twitter, is all about now.  Unedited.  This moment.  Not that last sentence you just read.

This one.

And it's a voluntary medium.  Though I tried, I couldn't avoid TV newscasters and the photo of Williams in the blue shirt during his interrogation, or large-print headlines from the national papers pleading for my emotional reaction.  I chose to read the feeds of reporter Luke Hendry (www.twitter.com/intelLH) and www.twitter.com/TheIntell just as deliberately as had I chosen not to read them.  This is the place for details, however graphic, because we have the option to tune out.

A three-part tweet from Hendry worth repeating:

Interesting point made in media gallery today (not to be interpreted as justification). Immediacy of tech these days now makes (cont'd)

it possible for something new in Canadian courts: live, moment-by-moment accounts. Theory was that this (cont'd)

may be at least partly why some are interpreting coverage of #colrw as media overload.

It is only in North America where journalists ascribe to impartiality in their reportage.  It is debatable whether that is ever possible, so the greatness in the immediacy of in-the-moment reporting is that humanity wins out.  Remember the 140 character count is a limit; you can't just blow out 300 characters, or even 141, whenever you want.  It's remarkable how much you can say when you have to say little (my emphasis below).

@IntelLH Police photo was not - from my very quick look - graphic. Police gathered forensic samples & analyzed #colrw

And when we receive a plethora of loosely edited information, all in-the-moment, we're allowed to focus on the questions we ourselves want answered.  Jessica and Williams had not ever met before his attack on her; didn't have to be a front-page story but, just the same, it answered a question I had.  That's what makes this form of reporting so valuable.

It also presents a couple thoughts about our use of social media during events like this one.  If a person chooses to "unfollow" you, it's not a personal attack or judgment on your character, particularly when your upcoming tweets are understood to be of a specific nature.  Because I was interested in the Williams case, I found myself reading my main Twitter update feed less, and routinely refreshed the @intelLH and @TheIntell pages in separate windows.

Are we using our "lists" optimally?  Mashable considers Facebook's list function, used for selectively distributing information to friends, "one of the most underrated privacy tools."  For Twitter, a more receptive medium, lists are important -- very important -- when we need to filter out updates from people we follow but who's updates we may not require, or be interested in at all (to put it bluntly).

It's been a long week, and I'm thankful that it's over.  I offer my sincerest, heartfelt condolences to the victims' families and friends, and my appreciation to the members of the media for considering the needs and interests of your local audience, your community, at this time.