The online community MySpace.com has recently been the subject of intensive scrutiny from the media, law enforcement and politicians due to reports of sexual predators
using the online community to victimize naive minors. However, too-trusting kids aren't the only ones who are scampering about the MySpace.com pages. This week's PR Scorecard
located four organizations who made the news after they ventured into MySpace.com. Did they tally up PR points for their digital endeavors, or did they soil their
reputations?
The PR Focus | Good PR or Bad PR? |
---|---|
The University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, KY, expelled sophomore Jason Johnson, 20, after discovering he acknowledged he was gay on
his MySpace.com page. The university is a Baptist school and it justified its actions via a policy that states: "Any student who engages in or promotes sexual behavior not consistent with Christian principles (including sex outside marriage and homosexuality) may be suspended of asked to withdraw." |
BAD PR: Why are the university leaders snooping around the MySpace.com pages of their students? Furthermore, the university's handbook
specifically prohibits "lewd and indecent conduct" by students "on and off campus" - there was nothing lewd or indecent on Johnson's MySpace.com page. As for Christian principles, we hope the would-be Sanhedrin running the university re-reads Matthew 7:1-5 and John 8:7 before making further judgments. |
The Lexington, KY, Police Department suspended two officers and is launching disciplinary action against four others after it was discovered
the cops were using MySpace.com to post wildly offensive comments against local citizens (dubbed "the snobby people of Lexington"), municipal leaders ("Lexington Fayette Urban Communist Government"), the disabled, gays, and country singer John Michael Montgomery (who was arrested on DUI charges by one of the suspended cops last February). |
BAD PR: Admittedly, news stories about dum-dum cops getting in trouble can be subversively funny - and outside of some outlandish name-calling
by the busted cops, there was no serious damage done. Even more ironic is the fact many municipal police departments are holding public forums to educate parents on the alleged dangers posed by MySpace.com. Perhaps a good lesson can be found here: Police officers might learn to keep their grumblings to themselves and not share them via the Net. |
Cingular is working with aspiring music artists to turn their self-produced tunes into ringtones. Cingular's Mobile Music Studio is
currently being tested with 75 unsigned bands, who are receiving instructions on licensing and production issues. InfoSpace Inc. has been hired to convert the bands' audio files into 30-second ringtones, which will be posted on MySpace.com for both audio preview and sale for use on Cingular cell phones. |
GOOD PR: Lest we forget, MySpace.com originally created as an online community to help up-and-coming bands to promote themselves. Kudos go to
Cingular for pushing ahead with an inventive PR program at the much-maligned MySpace.com and for not shying away from this online opportunity because of the shrill media coverage about the site's reportedly salacious reputation. |
The administration of Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, TX, banned MySpace.com from the campus networks. No, it has nothing to do with
predators cruising for jailbait students. The problem involves bandwidth, or the lack thereof. Specifically, the college traced its sluggish Internet speeds to students spending too much time on MySpace.com. An IT investigation found MySpace.com is too popular with the student body: In a 24-hour period, Del Mar campus computers accumulated a sum of 229 hours on MySpace.com. In announcing the ban, college president Carlos Garcia declared: "Unfortunately, it is interfering with legitimate instruction." |
GOOD PR: For MySpace.com, that is. After all, there is nothing better in building cred for an online site than getting banned by authority -
even if the authority in question is the administration of a hitherto-obscure Texas community college. For the college, the PR falls between Good and Bad: If we had a category "Silly," it would go there. And the college president's expression of surprise about personal Web usage on campus computers reminds us of the "Casablanca" nugget where Claude Rains' professed to be being "shocked" to find gambling in Rick's Café. Personally, we hope the Del Mar kids with MySpace.com pages include us among their new online friends! |