YOU WOULDN’T MAKE IT UP ...
NEW MEDIA have produced some extraordinary journalism, none more confusing than a story from Second Life that made the newspapers a year ago. The story was that the story was researched and generated in the online fantasy world of Second Life.
A Cornish couple, Amy Taylor and David Pollard, split up over a spat online, over the supposed conduct of the alter ego “avatars” they had created for themselves. Amy sued for divorce after catching David in a compromising position with another avatar on the Second Life site.
The story broke on satellite TV but the couple would not talk to the press, so journalists at the press agency South West News hit upon the idea of creating avatars for themselves and interviewing the couple on Second Life. They proved to be less reticent in the virtual world, and the journalists got the story.
The Media Guardian reported that “while flesh and blood reporters and photographers banged on the door of the pair’s real homes, virtual ones were trying to doorstep Laura Skye and Dave Barmy [the couple’s avatar names] in Second Life”.
“Barmy” was even persuaded to bring his new girlfriend. They posed together for photographs which were grabbed from the computer by South West News.