Defame and they’ll be a Claim!- Journalists and the Law of Defamation

When researching celebrity slander and libel cases, it is surprisingly common to see how many cases appear online. A vast number of high-status public figures have been victims to defamation and, as a result, have sued those who have risked their social standing.

 The BBC states “the law of defamation allows individuals, groups of individuals, companies or firms to sue for damage to their reputation. You can defame someone by publishing material in various forms and people can sue so long as the material can be reasonably understood to be referring to them.”

 To me, one of the most prominent examples involved Keira Knightley and an anorexia libel claim back in 2007. The actress accepted £3,000 High Court libel damages after The Daily Mail published a story about a 19-year-old girl who had died as a result of the eating disorder. The article, headed "If pictures like this one of Keira carried a health warning, my darling daughter might have lived", was published alongside images of Knightley in a bikini on holiday.

 The claim was supported by Knightley’s solicitor who said the paper suggested she had an eating disorder and held some responsibility towards the girl's death. Additionally, the story came only a few days after the newspaper had already targeted Knightley’s weight under the headline “It's itsy bitsy teeny weeny Keira Knightley”. By tackling such a sensitive topic in a tactless way that highlights the negative sides of celebrity culture, The Daily Mail could be seen to jeopardise the actress’ reputation.

 Nowadays, the stigma around anorexia is widespread in relation to celebrity culture and female role models. With negative connotations surrounding the illness, female celebrities can constantly be seen in the press in regards to body image. Despite the defendant claiming the article was of public interest and alerted mothers to the dangers of anorexia, The Daily Mail lost the case. Knightley matched the £3,000 she was given before donating it to the charity Beat which helps sufferers of mental illness.

Knightley's slim figure was emphasised as she was captured on holiday in a bikini.
http://s1041.photobucket.com/user/SweeterYet/media/Kiera%20Knightly/keira-knightley-anorexia-1-23-07.jpg.html

 But how can journalists prove a story is of public interest without being sued for damaging a celebrity’s reputation? In this case, I think it was clear The Daily Mail placed Keira Knightley in a position which suggested she had been a poor role model for the deceased young girl. By using pictures of the actress that emphasised the shape of her body, the article could be seen to highlight that young girls aspire to her unrealistically thin form. I believe it was right for the newspaper to emphasise the dangers of anorexia through the reporting of the girl’s death, but to attach Knightley to the article was unnecessary and harmful to the celebrity’s reputation. There’s a thin line between what journalists claim to be of public interest and what content can be sued by celebrities, but this is an issue that all journalists have to face.

Verify on Storify- Exploring News Curation

As a new user to Storify, I was unsure of what to expect at first. Without the requirement to explore news curation as part of my degree, the layout of the site could have scared me away originally, had it not been compulsory for me to carry on. However, through some basic guidance of Storify and a good deal of trial and error, I found myself able to navigate the system and produce some stories of my own.

 Unlike any platform I have worked with before, I knew news curation required perhaps more thought than other platforms I’d used for journalism, such as microblogging on Twitter. The act of content curation involved me not only finding the information I needed to create a Storify, but also arranging the material to form a coherent structure to my narratives. This could be tricky at times due to the wealth of information available online that needed filtering to determine the relevance to my stories.

 Nonetheless, as a result of the time I spent using Storify, I feel I have gained a deeper understanding into the many ways news can be conveyed online. It’s easy for me to turn to more conventional styles of journalism in order to find what I am looking for but, now I am aware of Storify’s existence, I will be returning to it more often.

 Unlike microblogging, Storify allows the creator to present as much information as they require to communicate the story at hand. Users have near-limitless access to sources they can draw on online and, once you understand the programme, you can produce some sophisticated work.

 But, like all news curation, it is important to note copyright and the inability to use some people’s work. However, in spite of this, there is such an abundance of sources freely available online it is likely you can find similar material on another site.

 It is apparent that Storify is a popular curation tool. This can be recognised through statistics generated by Quantcast estimating the amount of Storify users per month in the USA. As up to date results, we can see that in the last 7 months, August saw the biggest increase in user activity. Up 13%, the platform reached an impressive 1, 697, 660 users. It is unclear why the graph shows a decrease succeeding August, but further statistics will determine the popularity of Storify.



https://www.quantcast.com/storify.com

 

 

 Overall, I found the biggest challenge to be finding a topic to curate. With little restriction on subjects which can be presented, the vastness can make the choice harder. As a student studying journalism, I decided to create my first Storify on a news story dominating the press. I decided to explore the Ebola crisis. However, I didn’t want to just report the facts on the virus, I wanted to explore how the media had covered it. As a result of this angle, I gained a deeper understanding into the way journalists report specific areas and the challenges reporters face when entering a dangerous environment.

 As a result of my engagement on Storify, I believe I have gained a deeper understanding into not just news curation, but the topics I explored as well. By grouping a variety of materials, I felt my stories conveyed additional depth that traditional forms of media cannot display. In the long term, I am glad to have explored this platform.