|
Elizabeth Safran, via YouTube
Reporter Michele Madigan flees a hacker convention after her hidden-camera investigation was publicly outed. Click to see video. |
There is a part of each of us that loves the "gotcha" moment provided by a reporter with a hidden camera, but hidden-camera investigations can veer toward voyeurism. And if a preying reporter underestimates the cunning of the intended prey, all bets are off.
When the hidden-camera ploy is uncovered in the midst of an investigation, credibility disappears as quickly as a the reporter from the scene. Ethically, there are situations where it is possible to justify the use of the hidden camera, but oftentimes the effort is not worth the result.
| RELATED RESOURCES
|
Get E-Media Tidbits as an RSS feed:
* Copy this link and add it to your feed reader
Subscribe to receive E-Media Tidbits by e-mail:
* Sent Monday-Friday, 5 p.m. ET | |
For
Dateline NBCs Michele Madigan, a plan to infiltrate
DefCon, "the world's largest underground hacking convention" (which concluded yesterday), by registering as a hacker and pretending not to be a journalist, will become an ethics and practice case study for my students in September -- and it might give pause to anyone considering this kind of investigation.
Wired's Kim Zetter has the story in her blog, Threat Level, including photos of Madigan's abrupt departure from the con followed by photographers who are not hiding their cameras.
Madigan was outed in a particularly embarrassing way -- during an on-stage presentation at Defcon. Of course, that's all on YouTube.
