In an statement, Nasr called her own remarks “simplistic,” saying she’s learned a “good lesson on why 140 characters should not be used to comment on controversial or sensitive issues, especially those dealing with the Middle East.”
If you’ve ever doubted the growing importance of social media and the influence it is having on and in society, this story should give your pause.
Octavia Nasr Leaving CNN After Controversial Hezbollah Tweet
UPDATE: Here’s another story about how sometimes social media and work just don’t mix.
Moulitsas is a prominent and influential liberal blogger and a regular on MSNBC’s popular “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” but it looks like Olbermann will no longer be allowed to have Kos on his show, because of this Twitter fight.
This is a bit dated but interesting perspective on “social media and the law” from Mark Cuban’s brother and attorney Brian Cuban.
… the accompanying PDF sent out to employees is 48 pages of internal corporate terrorism, laying out detailed rules that govern each and every part of an employee’s life, should it have any tangential connection whatsoever to Viacom business. That includes personal blogs …
As far as I can tell, Viacom is the only company, so far, with such a strict policy but, as the article suggests, this may be the beginning of a trend in business. Perhaps, then the community needs to push for built in flexibility for social media policies before the hardened of Viacom becomes the norm.
Viacom/MTV Issues Intense Employee Gag Order, Basically Takes Ownership of Blogs, Thoughts
… wondered aloud whether a magazine could be entirely produced over the course of a single weekend using an ad-hoc army of contributors and editors assembled through an all-call on Twitter and other social media … By Sunday at noon, the crew all went pencils down and shipped the magazine – now called 48 HR: Hustle – to MagCloud, an on-demand printer of magazines … On May 11, Lauren Marcello, the assistant general counsel at CBS sent a cease and desist letter, noting that “CBS is the owner of the rights in the award-winning news magazine televison series, ‘48 Hours,’ and its companion series, including ‘48 Hours Mystery,’” adding later in the letter, “your use is unlawful and constitutes trademark infringement, dilution and unfair competition …”
Interesting read on the potential of social media (to ignite interest and inform the people) and the growing legal implications it begets. Reading the article reminded me one the one hand of the vibe many of us had about the openness and empowerment of Internet circa 1999 and on the other hand of the creeping regulation that we are so use to today. The suggest to me that social media is only going to get bigger but the big question is how to keep it, vibrant, stable, fun and legal at the same time.
48 HR Magazine Experiment Big Hit, Except for That Part About the Lawyers
One of the issues that have been hampering my progress into researching this field is that I’ve been bombarded by a plethora of definitions for the term social media. Today, I decided to hammer out a definition that is suitable to me as a basis for study. First though, here’s a sampling of a couple of links that illustrate the the many competing definitions that are out there:
Definitions of Social Media on the Web
What the F**k Is Social Media? Here’s an Answer
So from all this, my definition of social media is:
Any media or content produced by any individual or entity using relatively inexpensive interactive software and hardware (such as a blog application and computer) for dissemination to the public at large generally via the Internet. Moreover, end-users have the ability to comment on and/or add value to the original content in real time. Accordingly, social media stresses connectivity, accessibility and speedy feedback.
The key takeaway for me is content (which can apparently be anything from a 140 character tweet about what you did today to 1 hour YouTube video) disseminated to a world with low barriers of accessibility.
Anyway, that’s the definition I will work with for now. I wouldn’t be surprised if it changes as I learn more.
