by Fran Feldman
Speculation ran high as news of an online suicide on Justin.tv (JTV) flew through the Web community on November 20th. While reports of life-threatening accidents and serious illness have been part of the stories heard around the network during the 18 months the live streaming video service has been in operation, they have, with little exception, been false reports.
As news of the suicide began circulating among broadcasters and community members, the most often asked question was; “What do you make of this suicide?” Most tenured community members have been jaded by fictitious reports of death usually made up by the chatter that was reportedly deceased. In the past, stories have been met with an outpouring of sympathy and compassion, in a virtual manner. People have put up banners or icons, have penned songs or created videos in remembrance of the “deceased” before realizing it was all a hoax, so it was no surprise that there was speculation when news of the Bigg’s case began circulating.
As the story of 19 year old Abraham K Biggs of Broward County, Florida ending his life while broadcasting on Justin.tv percolated among the channels and chatrooms of JTV, accounts of viewers of the Bigg’s channel egging him on to push him to go through with his threats caused an outpouring of disbelief and disdain for those alleged to have participated in the behavior.
While this type of news presents the seedy side of Justin.tv, there have been opportunities for Justin and his team to mark historical events and activities via live streaming video that have gone untapped.
Take, for instance, the potential for people to witness Olympic events in real time rather than waiting for the recorded video to air in prime time in the US, hours after the events have concluded, the medals awarded and the news announced via internet news sites, thus taking the wind out of the sails along with the excitement.
What would election day have been like if there had been JTV broadcasters streaming live from polling places across the country, giving those yet to vote a look into what to expect in terms of wait times and weather from people right in their own community? And if people had questions, they could have set up a kind of Q&A team at the larger polling places to help make the stress of getting out to vote less worrisome.
How great would it be for millions, possibly billions of people unable to make it to Washington, DC in January for Barak Obama’s inauguration to be able to witness it virtually, from a “regular citizen’s” point of view in addition to network and cable broadcasting; a kind of “man in the street” inauguration witnessing of events?
While sadness resonates among the Justin.tv community at the loss of life among community, there is the potential to turn this horrible outcome into help for others. Kan and his team can find some good from this sad event by reaching out to suicide prevention organizations and asking for help in putting together a program on Justin.tv to help reach out to those struggling with depression so severe that they would consider an end such as this. With an unlimited number of channels and available real estate to post advertisements, perhaps a percentage of ad space could be dedicated to promoting help for people facing the challenges and distress that depression brings into the lives of individuals and families.
I’d wager a bet that there are countless organizations that would welcome this kind of platform to get their message out and to give them a wider audience to offer help.
Fran Feldman hosts a nightly cooking show on justin.tv and blogs at http://justopia.com/blog.
See Also: Mashable.com