Twitter is widely used as a means of informing your family and friends what you’re up to without having to ring or message them. But it can also be used by news organisations to deliver breaking news, even if that news concerns the details of a three-year-old child’s funeral.

Twitter is a micro-blogging service and social network which allows you to update all of your contacts on what is currently happening in your life. The service has been used in various ways over the past couple of years, including as a Presidential Election tool, to get a political prisoner out of jail, and even by private eyes searching for information on individuals. But the latest use of Twitter may be a step too far.

Marten Kudlis is a three-year-old boy who was tragically killed when a truck crashed in to the Denver area ice cream shop he was in at the time. His funeral took place on September 10th, and due to the nature of his death, it was considered a newsworthy event for local newspapers to cover.

Rocky Mountain News reporter Berny Morson decided that rather than wait for the funeral to finish before filing his copy, he would instead use Twitter to provide his followers with a kind of running commentary on the service. This has caused controversy both in the local area and around the world, with some people arguing that this is an inappropriate use of technology and an invasion of privacy.

Although I can see why some people would have problem with using Twitter in this way, I really can’t see the problem with it. The technology is there to offer people the opportunity to keep people bang up to date with developments, whether that be the minutiae of live or something more serious. All Morson was doing was utilising the technology in the way it was ultimately intended.

As for privacy, surely the reporting of this three-year-old’s funeral service in the traditional print medium was already preventing it from being any kind of private affair. Does the speed which events are reported make it any less private than a couple of paragraphs filed in a newspaper the next day?

I agree with Christopher Null at Yahoo that it’s really only the cold nature of Tweets, which is necessary due to the character limit on Twitter, that makes this method of reporting such an event inappropriate.

The important thing to remember is that Martin’s family allowed Morson to attend and use Twitter in this way. They have also not come forward in the aftermath to claim it was wrong or improper. Some people may not like the way Morson used Twitter in this way, but if the mourning family don’t have a problem, then why should anyone else?

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Entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 7:28 pm under Internet, Opinion, Social Media, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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