Saturday, May 19, 2012

Fans taking it too far on Twitter

Los Angeles Lakers point guard Steve Blake, went from hero to goat in a five day span. He helped the Los Angeles Lakers win a close seven game series against the Denver Nuggets, in the first round playoff series. In game seven of the best of seven game series, Steve Blake had a sensational game. He scored nineteen needed points for the desperate Los Angeles Lakers. That game made Steve Blake become the talk of the town. He was celebrated in Los Angeles for his big performance in game seven.

Oh, how quickly do we forget. The Los Angeles Lakers moved into the second round to take on Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma Thunder. In game one the Lakers were blown out. But, the Los Angeles Lakers played an impressive game, and lost by two points only. They lost with Steve Blake missing an uncontested three point shot. It was controversial, since the Lakers best player Kobe Bryant did not take the last shot. Following the game Steve Blake, and his wife were harassed over twitter. Yes, twitter. The oh so friendly giant media outlet twitter that helps peoples promote businesses, have celebrities interact with their fans, and just to have interactions among friends. 

One tweet directed to Steve Blake, and his wife Kristen Blake, "I hope your family gets murdered." From this tweet Kristen Blake responded with one word, "Wow." Kristen Blake would later block a few hundred people from her twitter account. She would later tweet, "Pray for those who abuse you." She reference this tweet from a passage from the Bible. Steve Blake responded to the media after practice with the Los Angeles Lakers, "It's pretty disappointing that there are a lot of hateful people out there, but you move on. I just don't appreciate it when it's toward my family. You can come at me all you want but when you say things about my wife and kids, that makes me upset." Click here to read more of Steve Blake's comments.So this question needs to be posed. Should twitter be monitored? 

1 comment:

  1. You've done some good coverage of Twitter/sports connections. This story about fan harassment raises a number of interesting issues about how social media can be related to hate speech or stalking. You might want to do a little research about the issues involving possible monitoring of Twitter over the course of the company's history, since there have been some interesting policies and incidents to write about. You might also want to think about how stories like this have become a part of sports journalism and why.

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