Social media does not magically eradicate inequality. Rather, it mirrors what is happening in everyday life and makes social divisions visible. What we see online is not the property of these specific sites, but the pattern of adoption and development that emerged as people embraced them. People brought their biases with them to these sites and they got baked in.

Lou says: This is from a fascinating talk http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html# by Danah Boyd, who has studied the differences among teens who are on MySpace versus those on Facebook. She takes that as symptomatic of the race/education/class divides in American society. She warns that those of us (I'm guilty) taking the pulse of America mostly on Facebook and Twitter are missing a big part of the picture.

from readwriteweb.com

Written by Sarah Perez / June 30, 2009 9:02 AM / 2 Comments

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Recently, new data from security solutions company Webroot revealed some interesting insights into the thoughts and behaviors of users on social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and others. According to their survey, a majority of users (78%) reported concerns about their social network profiles' privacy, but when asked about specific behaviors it was apparent that "concern" didn't translate into action. In fact, it didn't even seem to translate into a basic understanding of how to use the privacy tools already in place on the networks today.

Is Your Profile Public? Err...I Don't Know

Seeing that a majority of social networking users expressed concerns about the information they shared in their profile, it's somewhat surprising to find that 80 percent of those same users allow their profiles - or at least, part of them - to be indexed by public search engines like Google. And 66% of users don't restrict any profile information from being publicly searchable.

Those numbers are based on the realities of the situation as tracked by Webroot, but when asked directly about their profile's publicity, a lot of respondents didn't even know the answer. A whopping 59% of the 1100 surveyed said they weren't sure who could see their profile.

To top it off, 32% of users shared at least three pieces of identifiable information on their profile pages and 28% accepted friend requests from complete strangers. These sorts of behaviors show a distinct lack of understanding about the risks of sharing personal information with those you don't know. It also certainly shows that being concerned about privacy hasn't been enough of an incentive for users to take any action to change their behavior.

The Younger You Are, the More You Share Trust

Webroot also found that younger social networking users took more risks than any other demographic. Those users ages 18 to 29 tended to use the same password across multiple sites (51% versus 36% overall), accepted friend requests from strangers (40% versus 28% overall), and shared more personal information online. In this age group, 67% shared their birthday (vs. 52% overall), 62% shared their home town (vs. 50% overall), and 45% shared their employer (vs. 35% overall).

Not surprisingly, this overly trusting group also reported more security attacks than others with nearly 40% having experienced an attack versus 30% overall.

Are Privacy Settings Too Hard to Use?

What's surprising about these findings is that most of today's modern social networks provide privacy settings that allow you to keep your personal information from being indexed or viewed by anyone except those you choose.

Even simple social networks, like microblogging site Twitter, let you set your feed to private, if you so desire. Facebook, now the largest social network in the U.S., offers robust privacy settings and is working on making them even more reflective of our real-world relationships. But clearly, there's a disconnect between what tools are out there and the users' knowledge of what's available or how to use them.

What can social networks do, though? Is it enough to simply offer the tools then put the onus on the users to dig around until they find them? Or should there be more guides and wizards provided in order to make turning on privacy settings a chore that even the less technically-inclined can handle?

As it stands today with so many mainstream users joining social networks, it may be time that social networks stopped hiding privacy options features deep within the settings (an area we'd wager the everyday user rarely accesses). Networks need to start highlighting your options or at least linking to the settings, somewhere a bit more obvious - like the profile page itself, for example.

Of course, even if social networks did so, there would still be a subset of users who were simply uninterested in doing anything about it. We suppose they would still have to learn the hard way about the risks of over-sharing, but at the very least, a larger part of the online population would be able to protect themselves and their personal info.

Lou says: Users of social media should have low expectations about privacy of information they post. Anything shared should be considered discoverable by others beyond the circle of trusted friends.

Though small and mid-size newspapers have suffered fewer losses than big metro dailies, and many are “holding up well under the circumstances,” a study by brokerage firm Cribb, Greene & Associates found that some have put themselves up on the auction block for bargain-basement prices and are ripe for the picking.

 

Cribb, Green estimates that ad revenues at smaller newspapers are down between about 10% and 15%, compared with total newspaper industry revenues, which were down 16.6% in 2008 and 28.3% in Q1 09.  Despite some properties holding their own while cutting expenses, many smaller players are exploring joint ventures and partnerships and seeking buyers. The asking prices for such papers have never been cheaper, making some of them good investments in a “buyer’s market” the firm said.

“Many smaller newspapers can currently be purchased for between four and eight times their earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), said John Cribb, managing director, who points out that a few years ago, prices were between 10 and 14 times EBITDA, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.

Cribb does not believe that the future of the industry is as bleak as some industry-watchers suggest. “Conventional wisdom that the newspaper industry has failed is just plain wrong,” he noted. “Newspaper operators who aggressively pursue a disciplined acquisition model have the opportunity to create significant value in the next few years.

PricewaterhouseCoopers expects that newspapers will continue to suffer declines in total global revenue in coming years, losing a total of $25 billion by 2013 because of a steady decline in print ad revenue. Newspaper advertising will fall by a cumulative 32.7% throughout the next three years, but will begin to rebound in 2012, writes Editor & Publisher.

Lou says: The obituaries for the newspaper industry are premature, especially when it comes to small and mid-sized newspapers in communities not hit by sharp declines in housing prices.
Many of the most severe problems of larger newspaper companies stem from their debt loads, not from operating earnings declines.

mark sanford

A Million Monkeys Are Googling 'María Belén Chapur'

By John Cook, 5:12 PM on Thu Jun 25 2009, 55,970 views (Edit post, Set to draft, Slurp)

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A barrage of conflicting and completely unreliable information is coming out about Mark Sanford's mistress. Let's have a look!

That picture is taken from a Blogger profile belonging to a one Maria Chapur. It looks a lot like the pictures that Business Insider has posted from a Facebook account. Is it the woman Sanford cheated on his wife with? We don't know. But it looks like an Argentinian newscast is making that claim.

Business Insider and others earlier published Facebook photos of a woman named "Maria Chapur" who lives in Buenos Aires. Business Insider has also posted video, apparently taken from a broadcast today on Argentinian television, of what is purported to be María Belén Chapur's undated tryout to be a television reporter. The woman in the Facebook photos is an artist, and frankly looks a little older to us than 43, which is Chapur's reported age. And she doesn't really look like the woman in the video. Again, we have no idea if that is the same woman that Sanford cheated on his wife with. The thing is, neither does Business Insider or anyone else.

But we don't really blame them. Everybody—including us—has spent all day frantically Googling the woman's name for digital traces, and all we've gotten are tantalizing clues.

Lou says: I loved the brilliant Gawker.com headline that popped up when I, along with half of America, went looking for more information on Gov. Sanford's special friend.

PR Clients Demand More, Better Measurement

Though 88% of PR practitioners believe measurement is an integral part of the PR process and 77% are currently tracking their programs for increasingly demanding clients, PR pros still do not agree on the best tools and methodologies to use, according to a recent survey.

The research, which was carried out by Benchpoint for The Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and the Institute for Public Relations (IPR), was conducted among an international sample of 520 PR pros. It found that more practitioners than ever are measuring the effectiveness of their communications programs, especially in response to client needs.

Client Measurement Demands Increasing

Clients, in general, are beoming more price sensitive, the study found. At the same time, they are asking their PR agencies to measure in more effective and targeted ways, especially in new media and in specific geographic areas.

General client trends toward PR measurement:

• Client demand for measurement of online communications increased from 29% in 2008 to 41% in 2009.
• Client demand for broadcast media evaluation is up from 15% of assignments in 2008 to 25% in 2009.
• 77% of clients commission single country measurement programs or projects.
• 69% of survey respondents say procurement specialists are becoming more involved in the purchase of measurement and evaluation services.

Disagreement on Measures

While an increasing number of clients are keeping their eye on metrics, most PR pros still judge their success by their ability to place material in the media rather than on the impact such coverage might have on shifting opinion, awareness, or moving markets.

This trend appears to be changing, the survey found. While the number of press clippings and advertising value equivalent (AVE) calculations remain perennial favorites, PR practitioners are now turning to more rigorous tools including internal reviews, benchmarking, the use of specialist media evaluation tools, focus groups and opinion polling.

The data indicates there are two camps - the output measurers (clippings and AVEs) and the outcome measurers who prefer more cerebral - and costly- measures (internal reviews, opinion polls etc).

“The survey presents a clear challenge to the media evaluation industry that more education is needed within the PR industry to demonstrate the business benefits of proper evaluation rather than continue to rely on clippings and AVEs,” said Mike Daniels, member of the Commission on PR Measurement & Evaluation and chairman of AMEC’s Business Development Committee.

Additional survey findings:

• The majority of PR pros (88%) think measurement is an integral part of the PR process , and 70% believe this strongly.
• The number of respondents (77%) who claim to measure their work is up from 69% in a similar survey five years ago.
• Measuring ROI (return on investment) on communications is viewed as an achievable goal by the overwhelming majority of professional communicators taking part in the survey.

Barry Leggetter, executive director of AMEC, said: “It’s ironic but it has probably taken a recession to be the turning point for achieving a breakthrough in the recognition of the value that proper measurement can bring to a PR program.”

A full report with findings of the survey will be available at the end of July 2009.

Lou says: As traditional media recede in importance, it's becoming a greater challenge for public relations professionals to demonstrate their effectiveness to clients.