10 Comments

  1. If the newspapers and TV think social networks are evil, then don’t you want to find out for yourself? Does the rebel in you think, they must be having fun ? All the grown-ups tell me it’s bad, so it must be good.

  2. Thank you for making me the poster boy for this campaign 🙂

    I’m on-board. I’m giving a talk to a PR agency on Wednesday about why they should be getting their clients into social media and I will happily tag on a section about the MSM campaign against it.

  3. @Cat, that’s true with real teens. YouTube is banned in Victorian schools, thereby ensuring hours of unsupervised gratuitous thrills after school. And kids can’t be skilled up in managing YouTube because you can’t be seen to be “promoting” it.

    But for adults: We see the rise of social networks like IYoMe or whatever its called to encourage scaredycat adults who are worried that the minute they step into cyberspace their PCs will be hacked. Funny though, about 4 hours later, a good percentage of them are up and running, galloping into Facebook, Second Life and blogging like mad men/women. I see the changes in my “How to…” courses all the time.

    @Steven, we should make a t-shirt. You holding the Stop Sign and some pithy saying. What d’ya reckon? 🙂

  4. If they had any sense, they wouldn’t do it to begin with.

    I say let them kill their backward industry faster if they want to, it’s dying anyway, due to lack of evolution.

    Ask the closest person under 20 when they last purchased some old media.

    You made your bed MSM, now lie in it.

  5. Laurel (and everyone else by association), count me in as a card-carrying member of the “Australian Media Needs A Clue On Social Computing” club. And me as a trained journo!

    I commented on the story at the News Ltd. site this morning and was one of the few dissenters. I’ve also posted my own reaction to the story at my blog.

  6. Sometime last week I gave up worrying about it/them and craving their approval, one day they will wake up and it’ll be too late….for them.

  7. It is clear that much of the MSM consider blogs and social networks to be their main competitors. Far from joining in the conversation, the aim seems to be to close down all debate … and to use every opportunity to push fear and alarm. Sound familiar?

  8. SBS World News Australia just ran the “Facebook is destroying productivity” story. I emailed a complaint:

    …..

    I don’t believe it!

    Just now… you ran that “news from PR” story from Sophos, with their outrageous and unsubstantiated figure for how much productivity is lost through people using social networking sites (SNS). And then your main counterpoint was a few clueless youths.

    Sophos is in the business of selling Internet filtering software, so talking up a “moral panic” about SNS is really just giving them free marketing. Especially with their logo on their spokesandroid’s shirt.

    Sure, you did have a guy talking about how he uses SNS to stay in touch with friends. But you didn’t talk to anyone who uses SNS in a business context, nor anyone with a more forward-looking view of how these technologies can enhance business.

    Might I suggest reading some of Laurel Papworth’s material?

    [links to your previous posts on this]

    Why is it that whenever “the intertubes” are mentioned, all critical thinking goes out the window? That’s OK for Channel 10, perhaps, but not SBS. Sophos got a free run with their scary version of the world. Not impressed.

    …..

    I’ll let you know if/when they reply.

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