Twitter and SMS from the Courtroom (original) (raw)
Twitter and SMS from the Courtroom' (2020) 11(1) International Journal for Court Administration 7
International Journal for Court Administration, 2020
Twitter and other social media in the judiciary have been a topic in this magazine before. Judith C. Gibson, for example, dealt with “The future of judges in a social media world” in the October 2016 issue. This short article aims to illustrate the problem of the use of social media in the courtroom using a small, recent practical example from the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.
Australian Courts and Social Media
Alternative Law Journal, 2013
Social media, like Facebook and Twitter, are now pervasive in many sectors of Australian society. However, Australia's courts are generally taking a cautious approach to using this technology to enhance and complement their processes. Where courts have used social media, it has generally been in the context of regulating its use by others (for example, by limiting journalists' live tweeting of court cases or juries' use of extraneous social media 'research') 1 rather than considering how they might make active use of social media themselves. In this article, we examine the extent to which Australian courts are using social media. We consider the opportunities and challenges posed by such media for courts and assess the extent to which they could make greater use of the technology. The rise of social media Social media generally refers to the 'set of online tools that are designed for and centered around social interaction', 2 including such platforms as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs. Unlike more traditional mediums such as print journalism, radio and television, social media depend on user-generated content and allow people to communicate and share content in a social setting. As a result, social media platforms are designed to facilitate a dialogue between users, rather than acting merely as a broadcast mechanism. This emphasis on dialogue and interaction is also what distinguishes social media from more traditional, static websites that are generally directed towards the passive viewing of content. The key characteristics of major social media platforms are as follows: Platform Description Global Users Australian Users (March 2013
Courts and Social Media: What do Judges and Court Workers Think?
There is also an increasing tendency of courts to make general non-publication orders rather than rely on people knowing and complying with the common law of sub judice contempt. In other words, courts are prohibiting by specific order what would be prohibited by contempt laws anyway. 12 Keyzer, et al, above, n 8, at [2.3]. 13 ibid.
Twitter en los juicios: una revolución en la información periodística de tribunales
El uso de Internet y de las redes sociales en la crónica de tribunales es un fenómeno imparable que ha revolucionado la manera de informar tanto en televisión como en los medios de comunicación online. En cualquier caso, los efectos de Twitter, Facebook y de Internet en general sobre el dinamismo de los juicios, no se derivan sólo de la actividad periodística sino de su influencia decisiva en aspectos internos del proceso judicial, tales como la posibilidad de interactuación instantánea entre sus protagonistas, o de acceso en Internet a una información decisiva que no puede operar en el juicio, tal y como lo muestran los casos Joanne Fraill(2011) y Theodora Dallas (2012) en el Reino Unido. Ha sido el juicio a Oscar Pistorius, un juicio de alto perfil, el campo de pruebas para visualizar los cambios que las redes sociales, sobre todo Twitter, han introducido en la información sobre procesos judiciales. La retransmisión televisiva –en directo- del juicio ha integrado la crónica de Twitter de periodistas situados en la sala de juicio, pero no sólo eso, en muchas ocasiones han cobrado relevancia tuits de ciudadanos que han comentado las noticias. La televisión ha intensificado el efecto de Twitter, también el efecto de abrir la crónica de tribunales a la participación ciudadana, al dedicar espacio tanto en la televisión como en las websites de las televisiones para presentar, comentar y señalar las tendencias del día de Twitter sobre el juicio. Por otro lado, estas mismas webs dedicadas al proceso judicial (dentro de las webs de las cadenas televisivas que lo han retransmitido) constituyen un fondo documental de vídeos, fotografías, artículos de información y de opinión, y tuits cuya accesibilidad se ha hecho aún Mayor gracias a Internet. Resulta difícil prever qué consecuencias tendrán en el desarrollo de los juicios esta sobreactuación informativa, pero lo que es cierto es que se inaugurado una forma distinta de hacer periodismo de tribunales.
LAW, LAWYERS AND THE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS
LAW, LAWYERS AND THE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS, 2019
Social media also can shape or affect relationships and the nature of communications between lawyers, their clients and the general public. Members of the legal profession similarly ought to consider what impact the use of social media could have on their professional and ethical obligations. Those obligations affect a lawyer and judge in all aspects of his or her life and communication. Social media does not change that position even though persons often relax or drop their guard when expressing themselves on social media. We cannot put the social media genie back in its bottle. Social media is now ingrained in the daily life of the community. Of course, its use by any section of society, including the courts or lawyers, cannot be ignored, let alone forbidden or discouraged. It will most often involve legitimate expression of opinion or communication criticizing judicial decisions. But it’s continuing impact on our lives if not properly managed will lead to more challenges for courts and lawyers. Change while inevitable, has its challenges.
International Journal for Court Administration, 2015
In many social realms, social media are employed by institutions to establish direct relations between their representatives and their clients or customers. In this article I explain why the civil law judge cannot be expected to begin using social networking sites to advance the transparency of the judicial decision-making process and establish a relatively open, form-free interaction with his or her 'clients'. The hybrid character of social media does not allow judges to utilize this form of communication to open up the 'backstage area', revealing the actual complex dynamics of the decision-making process, and transparently connecting the judicial 'onstage' performance in the courtroom session with the judicial 'onstage' performance when issuing a decision. On the one hand, social networking sites are direct, interactive, informal, and personalized communications media; but on the other, they are publicly available, open and basically perpetual record sites. Their direct, interactive, informal and personalized character is highly compatible with the multimodal, form-free self-representation of the modern judge in the courtroom. However, the media's public character makes them also part of the public performance of a judge issuing a decisions. This performance is characterized by a unimodal, formal self-representation. Legal sociologists as well as discourse scholars stress how heavily this continual process of public judicial self-representation is part of a persistent ritual that conflicts with direct, interactive, informal and personalized communication.
Jurors Using Social Media in Our Courts: Challenges and Responses
This article considers the use of social media by jurors during the trial and deliberation processes. The article presents examples of such conduct from Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. The article considers research on why jurors use social media, and discusses the likely prevalence of the issue. The article then discusses the risks this conduct presents to the defendant’s right to a fair trial and the administration of justice generally. Possible solutions are examined, including banning telecommunication devices, requiring jurors to take an oath and developing specific jury instructions. Research on the effectiveness of jury instructions is reviewed, and future directions for research, policy and practice noted.
An examination of social media's impact on the courts in Australia
Krawitz Marilyn an Examination of Social Media S Impact on the Courts in Australia Phd Thesis Murdoch University, 2014
There are several different forms of social media. 31 The most popular today are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. Eight hundred and twenty-nine million people used Facebook daily in June 2014, 33 there are currently about 500 million tweets daily, 34 and LinkedIn currently has over 313 million members. 35 In December 2012, it was estimated that 11.8 million Australians regularly used Facebook, 2.1 million Australians regularly used Twitter and 2.1 million Australians regularly used LinkedIn. 36 More than 60 per cent of Australians use any form of social media. 37 Other social media sites include Google+, blogs 38 and Flickr. 39 Twitter was created in 2006. 40 People using Twitter can write short remarks, called tweets, which anyone on the internet can see. 41 Tweets must be 140 characters or less. 42 Users can 'follow' people's tweets: this means that the tweets of the person whom one follows appear on one's homepage. 43 A person who tweets is called a tweeter; 44 tweeters can also use Twitter to send private messages to each other. 45
Revista de Administração Pública
This article deals with the communication of Brazilian Courts of Accounts and Prosecution Services on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, since the opening of their accounts. The study innovates in the discussion about democratic controls over public administration in the so-called “digital democracy,” focusing on institutional communication of Courts of Accounts and Prosecution Services, showing that controllers also need to be concerned about their transparency and accountability. Having verified that they maintain professional communication departments that operate intensively on social media, with emphasis on the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and the Federal Prosecution Service (MPF) on Twitter, the article specifically analyzes the content of the two institutions’ communication in this platform by using the Iramuteq software. Both TCU and MPF kept posting a variety of content on Twitter since first opening their accounts and at important moments in recent...
Live Tweeting a murder trial - paper for IAMCR 2016 - DRAFT
The use of social media, especially Twitter, is now widely accepted within journalism as an outlet for news information. Live tweeting of unfolding events is standard practice, with a few exceptions. As technology unfolds, the law tends to follow slowly, meaning that in many jurisdictions, the use of social media in courtrooms has been constrained. In March 2014, Oscar Pistorius went on trial in the Gauteng High Court for murder. Mobile phones were permitted in the courtroom, and the hundreds of journalists present began live-tweeting their coverage, an unprecedented combination of international media interest, relative flexibility of the sub judice rule and technology which resulted in massive streams of consciousness reports of events as they unfolded. Based on a corpus of Twitter feeds of twenty four journalists covering the trial, this study analyses the content and strategies of these feeds in order to present an understanding of how microblogging is used as a live reporting tool. The journalists selected cover national and international media for the full range of media outlets and are from a range of nationalities and backgrounds. This study shows the development of standardised language and strategies in reporting on Twitter. As opposed to earlier studies (Hedman, 2015; D. Lasorsa, 2012; D. L. Lasorsa, Lewis, & Holton, 2011; Vis, 2013) which found greater variation in what journalists did (or thought they did) on social media, a more narrow range of activity was found, with only three strategies being present in teh accounts: Promotion, Reportage and Interaction. No significant variation in these was found with regards to gender, location or medium. The study also found that when journalists converse on social media, they do so with each other. The narrow range of voices present in the media, and the extent o which journalists speak primarily to each other, and not the wider public has been researched and commented for some years (Awad, 2006; Kothari, 2010; Lariscy, Avery, Sweetser, & Howes, 2009; Sigal, 1999). This study shows that new technologies have not changed this significantly, and that social media is not expanding the community with access to the media. This study highlights that we are in the beginning phase of the development of standardised strategies and styles for social media: from the wide ranging possibilities of the early days, Twitter is coalescing into a particular kind of tool for particular kinds of journalism. This is in keeping with the development of news in other media as well, which evolved into the standardised forms and language that came to be accepted as “traditional” for the medium. (Barnhurst & Nerone, 2001; Briggs, 2001) This study is the preliminary phase of the development of standardised strategies and styles for social media: from the wide ranging possibilities of the early days, Twitter is coalescing into a particular kind of tool for particular kinds of journalism. This is in keeping with the development of news in other media as well, which evolved into the standardised forms and language that came to be accepted as “traditional” for the medium. (Barnhurst & Nerone, 2001; Briggs, 2001)
Socio-legal implications of courtroom technology
2011
This paper is drawn from an ongoing research which attempts to examine the socio-legal implications of the current adoption of courtroom technology on the delivery of the civil justice system of the High Courts in Malaysia. Among the objectives of this research is that it aims to critically examine the socio-legal implications of courtroom technology in the abovementioned courts. This research also critically examines the experience of courtroom technology in the United Kingdom for comparative analysis and lessons to be learned. Finally, this research aims to propose recommendations for the amendment to the relevant statutes, improvement to the practice directions, and to propose best practices and code of conduct in implementing courtroom technology. The research adopts a qualitative method, comprising of the collection of primary data (which involves field work adopting case study design at the High Courts of West and East Malaysia) and secondary data (which involves library-based research). The primary data which have been generated is analysed by using the computer aided qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti version 6.2 prior to reporting of the same. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the body of knowledge on courtroom technology in Malaysia.
Courts’ Use of Social Media: A Community of Practice Model
International Journal of Communication, 2017
This article examines the development of social media as a communication tool for courts, judicial agencies, and tribunals. It presents the findings of a study into a small, but vibrant network of public information officers from this sector who shared knowledge and worked creatively in developing their social media practice at a time when these platforms were emerging as a serious consideration for government stakeholder communication. The article achieves two outcomes. First, it advances the limited scholarly literature into how courts, judicial agencies, and tribunals have transitioned to social media. Second, it develops a theoretical framework based on a community of practice model, which has application across any sector or industry in which practitioners work in siloed communication roles or are required to incorporate information and communication technologies at a rapid pace.
Social media jurors: Conceptualizing and analyzing online public engagement in reference to legal cases
Jurors are people who are exposed to legal proceedings and consequently exercise their judgment. A broad literature on law and film discusses the analogy between formal jurors, who are assigned to jury duty by the legal system, and "informal jurors"-"viewers-as-jurors" who encounter the legal system indirectly, through the media. In this paper, we identify a new category of "informal jurors", which refers to public discourse and actions concentrated on social media arenas in reference to legal cases. We argue that this category, which we call "social media jurors", maintains a tight correspondence with existing categories of jurors, but is distinguished from them by their extended abilities for speech and action. This article is based on a netnographic study, by which we illustrate our argument through the online activity in support of Roman Zadorov. Zadorov was convicted of murdering a young girl in Israel, while a large majority of Israelis continue to support his innocence and carry out extensive action on social media in support of this cause.
SMS Enhanced Justice: Towards Efficiency and Convenience in Court Cases
2017
We seek to bring convenience and efficiency in the process of accessing justice through the courts of law. A lot of time and money is wasted when litigants travel long distances to visit court registries, in order to know the status of their cases. It is also very inconveniencing and frustrating for litigants when they travel for long, only to find that the judicial officer handling their case had given notice that there will not be any sitting on a particular date. In this project, we are developing an integrated solution to these challenges, dubbed FAMALIA. It is a web and SMSbased application that electronically manages the court cases by the Kenyan Judiciary. Litigants and interested parties can access the system via SMS. So far, details of over 28,000 cases have been entered into the system. It is expected that the system will greatly improve access to justice. Relevance to innovation. Famalia is an innovative service within the judicial process in Kenya. It provides a new way ...
Pena Justisia: Media Komunikasi dan Kajian Hukum (edisi elektronik), 2024
Communication in law enforcement that was previously conducted face-to-face is now transformed into electronic-based trials through the support of technology and the internet. Various problems arose during this trial process, specifically regarding infrastructure support, digital literacy, and user technology which are still unequal. This study aims to describe Virtual Trials in Courts from a communication perspective through queries on: (1) how virtual trials are carried out in court, and (2) what are the law enforcement's challenges in implementing online trials in the Bekasi regency. Researchers conducted interviews with 6 informants, carried out online data searches, and made observations. The results of this study show that the implementation of virtual trials at the Bekasi Regency District Court is a form of supporting an affordable, fast, and simple justice system for the community through media conferences. For the law enforcers, virtual trials have advantages and disadvantages in implementation. The advantages of virtual trials are a form of innovation in the justice system that allows the parties involved in trials without having to be physically present in the courtroom, so there is no need for additional costs. While the weaknesses of virtual trials are related to (1) the validity of examining material or evidence in court, which could not be conducted directly, and (2) the inability of thorough information interpretation due to network constraints. Trial implementation has several limitations as challenges to effective trial implementation, including technology and infrastructure limitations, accessibility limitations, limited interaction between the parties involved, data security limitations, and limited supervision.
The impact of online media on legal discourse
Studia Iuridica Lubliniensa, 2023
This article examines the methodological challenges and difficulties created by the emergence of new forms of legal discourse. These are provided by the new channels of communication, collectively found within the "mass media" and concerns online media: portals, blogs, social networking applications, etc. Since analytical theories of legal discourse were developed before the IT revolution, it is important to consider to what extent existing theories of legal discourse are adequate, given the contemporary picture of the phenomenon. The article is scientific but also contains some reflexions in the field of legal methodology due to its subject. There are formulated two research theses. The first concerns the assumption that due to the expansion of mass media, legal discourse is losing its previous hermetic character. The second assumes that the research programme of analytical jurisprudence, within which previous theories of legal discourse have been developed, requires appropriate modifications to capture the new forms in which it is conducted. The paper concludes by formulating possible directions for the development of a methodology for creating theories of legal discourse.