Jessica Glenza of the Register Citizen did some excellent reporting in a story published today about sexual assault allegations against two high school football players in Torrington, Conn.
A critical aspect of the story and of Jessica’s reporting was her documentation of cyber-bullying of the 13-year-old girl named as the victim in the alleged assault. The story includes screen shots of nine tweets (four of them pictured above) that attempted to blame and shame the girl. One of them was retweeted 21 times and favorited 13 times. Without the tweets themselves (some of them using vulgar language that the Register Citizen wisely didn’t water down), second-hand allegations or rumors of cyber-bullying would have weakened the story. The tweets make the bullying a well-documented fact.
I have asked Jessica and her editors to provide a detailed account (when they have time) of how they tracked down the tweets used in the story. Editor John Berry gave a quick explanation by email this morning:
The Twitter trail started when (C0-Managing Editor) Tom Cleary started looking in to the suspects themselves, then followed to friends, and saw the larger problem of the bullying and “slut-shaming” from classmates.
This school district is notoriously tight-lipped and difficult. We have been trying to get a story about the hazing incident and bullying in the schools for months now, but the fact that two players got arrested last month led to seeing all of the tweets once we realized that the suspects in the sexual assault were Torrington football players.
We quoted several in print and used screen caps of a few of the tweets on the front page.
Some Twitter tips on working a story like this (some of them are my suggestions and speculation about what the Register Citizen journalists might have done, pending a more detailed account from them):
- Use advanced Twitter search to look for local tweets using keywords such as “whore” or “hoes” in or near your community. Each time you find a relevant tweet, that might give you some more words to search for, such as “punishment,” “destroyed” or “fault.” Use the search with and without a location filter, because most Twitter users do not enable location. When searching without the location, search with and without a location keyword, such as “Torrington.”
- Because Twitter search doesn’t go back indefinitely, use Google (with “Twitter” in your search query) to search as well. Or Topsy.
- If the suspects are on Twitter, check the tweets of their followers and go through their timelines, looking for any retweets of bullying tweets or replies such as “thanks.” You can do this by clicking “followers” or “following” on their profile, as I’ve shown below on Jessica’s profile.
- Take screen grabs each time you find a shaming tweet. Normally I favor embedding tweets, as I’ve done below with the Register Citizen’s tweet linking to the story and with one of the tweets cited in the story. However, in cases like this you should expect that the shamers will delete their tweets (disabling your embed), either when you start inquiring about them or when you publish (if the tweet below is deleted, you’ll see). Below the embedded tweet is a screen grab with the same tweet. That will be good even if the tweet is deleted. So use the screen grab rather than embedding the tweet (though you probably should link to the actual tweet if it’s still live, or you could embed and use the screen grab).
Students call 13-year-old girl “whore,” “snitch” after rape arrests of #Torrington football players – registercitizen.com/articles/2013/…
— Register Citizen (@RegisterCitizen) March 20, 2013
I wanna know why there’s no punishment for young hoes
— Ant (@asmedick) February 22, 2013
- Each time you find a relevant tweet, click “expand” on the tweet, or click the time-stamp (in the upper right corner of the tweet in your timeline) to open the tweet as its own URL. That will show replies, retweets and favorites (as in the screen grab below).
- Use Google to search for key phrases (and “Twitter”) in tweets to find people who retweeted by quoting, rather than clicking “retweet” or “reply.”
- Check each person’s Twitter profile to see what they tell about themselves, such as hometown or where they go to school. Also check their timelines, which might tweet about school matters or otherwise identify them as living in your community.
- Follow the people. If they follow you back, you can direct-message them with an interview request.
- You also can tweet directly at someone asking for an interview. Give a phone number and/or email address for them to contact you.
Two points not related to Twitter:
- I blogged last year about my irritation about the use of the term “alleged victim” in sexual assault cases. I’m pleased that the Register Citizen did not use this terminology in the story. This might not be a case where my suggested alternative — “accuser” — would not be appropriate, because we don’t know (from the story at least) whether the girl made any accusation. Perhaps authorities built the case from photos the boys took or accounts of witnesses or the girl’s parents. Still, you can and should write around, rather than using “alleged victim.” Above I referred to her as “the 13-year-old girl named as the victim in the alleged assault.”
- I was pleased to see the Register Citizen use Scribd to embed the actual arrest reports.
I’ll have more on this later, when I hear more from my Torrington colleagues. Given the similarities to the Steubenville, Ohio, sexual-assault case, I expect this story to attract a lot of national attention.
Do you have more suggestions on working a story like this?
Earlier #twutorial blog posts
Step one for using Twitter as a reporter: Master advanced search
Use lists, TweetDeck, HootSuite, saved searches, alerts to organize Twitter’s chaos
Denver Post staffers’ #theatershooting coverage demonstrates Twitter breaking news techniques
Hashtags help journalists find relevant tweets and reach more people
Advice and examples on how and what journalists should tweet
9 ways to find helpful people and organizations to follow on Twitter
To build Twitter followers: Join the conversation, tweet often, be yourself
10 ways Twitter is valuable for journalists
Updated Twitter time management tips
Don’t be selfish on Twitter; tweeting useful information is good business
What’s the best way to view Twitter’s users? 16 percent or 30 million
Twitter data shows journos’ ‘burstiness’ boosts followers
#Twutorial guest post from Deanna Utroske: Tips for twinterviewing
#Twutorial guest post by Menachem Wecker: How to use Twitter to find the best sources
#Twutorial guest post by Jaclyn Schiff: How using Storify can help you find great sources
Getting started on Twitter: #twutorial advice for a friend
Should a journalist livetweet a funeral? If so, how?
Use Twitter for conversation about an event, not just promotion
How to verify information from tweets: check it out
In addition, these two posts predate the #twutorial series but I’ve made them part of it:
[…] « Excellent use of Twitter by Jessica Glenza in reporting story of sexual assault allegations and bull… […]
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OK, here’ an ignorant question: How do you do a screen shot of a tweet? (My daughters brand new phone has that capability, but I’m not sure that my 2-year-old phone can. And I have no idea how to do it on a desktop computer, or even an iPad…)
Thanks!
Karen
Karen Nolan Opinion Page Editor The Reporter 916 Cotting Lane Vacaville, CA 95688 (707) 453-8182
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The answer varies by device. Tell me what phone & computer you use and I’ll try to crowdsource. For my MacBook Pro (and all Macs, I think), it’s Shift-Command-3. I probably could find it on a PC because I used to have one a few years ago, but I’d find it by trial-and-error. Ask colleagues and I’ll bet one knows if you use the same machines. My iPhone, I hit the activate button on the top and the home-screen button on the face simultaneously.
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We have PCs here in the office, so we used the “print screen” button and then pasted it into a blank file in a photo editor, and cropped out the rest of the screen.
Thanks for writing about the story, Steve. Hopefully I can send you some more information on how we went about reporting it when things settle down a bit here.
Tom
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Thanks, Tom! No rush. You need to make advancing the story your priority.
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greptweet.com is also an excellent tool for searching a user’s entire account for key phrases and words quickly.
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Thanks, Jackie!
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[…] coverage in items from Poynter, Columbia Journalism Review, and DFM Digital Transformation Editor Steve Buttry, among […]
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[…] as several regional engagement workshops. I noted successes by DFM journalists in crowdsourcing, using Twitter in investigative reporting, curating and commenting on breaking news and using archived photos for […]
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[…] Excellent use of Twitter by Jessica Glenza in reporting story of sexual assault allegations and bull… […]
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[…] Excellent use of Twitter by Jessica Glenza in reporting story of sexual assault allegations and bull… […]
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[…] Excellent use of Twitter by Jessica Glenza in reporting story of sexual assault allegations and bull… […]
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[…] Excellent use of Twitter by Jessica Glenza in reporting story of sexual assault allegations and bull… (2013) […]
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[…] I noted last year, screenshots were an important part of the reporting when the Register Citizen last year reported on cyberbullying by high school students in Torrington, Conn., after two football players were charged with raping […]
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[…] that might disappear. They are important and should be used in cases where you need to document bullying, politicians’ stupid statements or other tweets that might be removed. But I can’t see […]
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