Lady Chatterley’s Twitter


Who ever thought a single newspaper would again be at the forefront of relevancy?  Goodness gracious, the Washington Post’s new social media guidelines have yet to be read by as many as 6 online pundits, and the world is rushing to catch up…

Bitter Tweet (chicagotribune.com via wires): Texas Tech bans tweeting after coach is dissed for being late to a meeting; Jets coach Mike Ryan benches David Clowney after coach is dissed for cutting his playint time on Sunday.

Bucks ban Twitter on team time (USA Today via wires): Ah, for the free-wheeling days when the decidedly ex-Buck Charlie Villanueva tweeted from the bench.

No-Tweet Heat (sun-sentinel.com): Like they said, Michael Beasley version.

NBA to unveil social media policy (ESPN.com): Enough of this freelancing already.  After all, it works for ESPN.

Oh, and while we are talking about military organizations:

Defense Department to Announce Social Media Policy” (emilitary.org, via NPR): “The problem now with social networking is that when you Twitter that information that might be sensitive … or put it on your Facebook page, thousands of people see it immediately, and then thousands more could see it as it’s forwarded on to others,” said the DoD’s “social network guy.”

Hmmm.  Wait a minute. Come to think of it, in the culture study conducted by the Readership Institute back in 2000, there were two industries that had cultures very similar to those of newspaper companies…..

Hospitals.  And the military.

Helps to explain things back at the WaPo, doesn’t it?


About Owen Youngman

Professor Emeritus of Journalism and formerly Knight Chair in Digital Media Strategy, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University. Formerly senior vice president/strategy and development and director of interactive media, Chicago Tribune.