No "Steve Jobs Ill" Photo

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (October 7th 2011)

We all know that social media is dominated by images, and advertisers and promoters clamor to exploit this to draw customers. We also know that the internet is a dizzying network of links, much like the nerves in our brain. But this article will have neither images nor links.

The First Post asks, "Was it right to publish the ‘Steve Jobs ill’ photo?"  The photo in question is of a more sickeningly gaunt Jobs, apparently being helped to stand up by another man. It garnered both sympathy and outrage. There was even talk that it was faked, with one site detailing exactly where it was photo-shopped. No matter. In either case, it was in poor taste to publish it.

Jobs was exceedingly private about his personal life, never mind the inner workings of Apple. So it’s hard to imagine that he would’ve given anyone permission to take this photo, let alone publish it. In the book The Long Tail Chris Anderson talks about how the internet has made regular people capable of producing, distributing, and accessing a wide range of content. True. But whether journalists, photographers, bloggers, or whatever, we must carry ourselves responsibly on the internet.

Thankfully, aside from the couple of sites I found, there was no publication of this photo. Among the many posts on Facebook about Jobs, for example, I saw that photo only once.