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Went Hot: January 28, 2008 - 7:04 pm
Posted By: theGypsy 164 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://mashable.com)
Category: Blogging
Mashable - Why has this flawed thinking gone so far as to warrant an official comment from MySpace? I do think Rebekah Horne, vice president of Fox Interactive Media and MySpace in Australia and New Zealand, made one of the most salient points with her comment that “This Delete-Your-MySpace day is just about being controversial.” And this is where the “gaming” comes in that I mentioned earlier. It’s almost as if Simon Owens, the original blogger has hit upon a formula of how to garner attention for anyone who would follow it:
1) Pick a popular target
2) Find reasons to nitpick something, even if they all have easy fixes
3) Say something outlandish about how it should go away
4) Reap the backlinks and media attention of “outraged” members of the blogosphere
5) Hit mainstream media as they always get amused when we dance like trained monkeys for them
3 Comments
Comments
This is a really interesting case. It reminds me of a recent story in Australia that generated undeserved media attention. It was regarding a 16 year old kid that held an unsupervised party that drew 500 guests (mostly invited via MySpace). The party got so out of control that the police riot squad and helicopter were called in to break it up. His unrepentent attitude afterwards caused a controversy that attracted mainstream media attention for almost a week - television, radio, YouTube etc.
While this kid did not hold the party to attract attention to himself, he certainly gamed the media afterwards and became a mini celebrity. I suspect this kid is doing the same thing. Intially he's just pissed off at MySpace and comes up with a catchy way to protest. Now he's gaming the media for everything he can get.
Is it just me, or is it a bit ironic that someone who works for Fox is complaining about sensationalism being misused? "Tonight on Fox News: Liberal bloggers try to kill MySpace, and why your child may be next!"
Yes you are geing gamed, every single day by every media outlet and attention whore that can get you to look their way for 10 seconds. Why should the internet be any different?