The Globe and Mail’s public editor Sylvia Stead weighed in on the newspaper’s coverage of murder trial again, this time focusing on how the newspaper is reporting on Twitter. The trial in question is for the murder of Victoria (Tori) Stafford, who was killed in 2009.
Stead argued:
“The question is not whether we should use Twitter, but how to use Twitter and on what elements of a story. Journalists need to apply the same standards when tweeting from a trial that we would use in any other form of telling what is happening. It may be extreme short-form journalism, but it is journalism.”
She noted that journalists could report “succinctly and sensitively” through Twitter, which can help readers learn more about the ins and outs of the case.
As we wrote previously, the Toronto Star decided not to tweet the trial.
See our previous report on the Stafford trial here.