Twitter, Facebook and Google+ ...New and digital media; - impact upon ownership and control of the media institution

TWITTER:

The impact of new and digital media upon ownership and control of the media institutions (twitter)

New media theorist Turkle states that "we make our technologies, and they, intern, shape us”

Lawsuit Questions Right to Access Twitter Followers

The Twitter ownership issue gained a lot of media attention in 2011 in the wake of a lawsuit between a blog called PhoneDog and a former employee, Noah Kravitz, who tweeted on behalf of the site while he worked there and then changed his Twitter account handle and took his followers with him when he quit.
The PhoneDog legal fight at its core is about who has the right to access a particular Twitter account and maintain the relationship with the Twitter followers associated with it. In its lawsuit against Kravitz, according to a court ruling in the case, PhoneDog alleged that the password and compilation of subscribers in the Twitter account constituted "trade secrets," and that Kravitz had inflicted damages to the company's business through his unauthorized use of the account and "misappropriation of trade secrets."

While it may be unclear whether anyone "owns" a Twitter account other than Twitter itself, PhoneDog claimed that it does have an ownership interest in the Twitter account and list of followers based on Twitter giving it license to use the account. PhoneDog argued that a list of Twitter followers is similar to a list of business customers. Others have argued that social media accounts like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are a form of intellectual property akin to proprietary business databases or customer records.

PhoneDog Case Could Set Precedent for Social Media Ownership

The case is being closely watched for many reasons, including the murky question of whether anyone besides Twitter can really have a property interest in a Twitter account.


Some people don't think so. They believe the only thing on Twitter that users really "own" is the content they post on the social messaging service, and Twitter even claims a non-exclusive right to that content in its terms of service agreement.
A New York Times story about the PhoneDog case quoted legal experts saying the case may establish legal precedents about ownership of social media accounts.
The California court hearing the case also could wind up addressing the question of how much value each Twitter follower has to companies, which could set another legal precedent. In its legal case, PhoneDog claimed each of its Twitter followers was worth $2.50 a month.

Other Twitter Ownership Cases Involving Journalists

A couple of other journalists drew attention even before the PhoneDog case for leaving employers and taking their Twitter followers with them.
Rick Sanchez had about 150,000 followers under the Twitter handle @ricksanchezcnn when he left CNN. Like Noah Kravitz, he kept his followers and simply changed his Twitter handle to delete "CNN" from it. Unlike Kravitz, Sanchez wasn't sued by his former employer.
A BBC political correspondent, Laura Kuenssberg, also drew attention when she switched employers earlier this year and took her Twitter followers with her to her new job at ITV. Like Sanchez and Kravitz, she just renamed her Twitter account.


FACEBOOK:
The impact of new and digital media upon ownership and control of the media institutions

Facebook has always been a new media institution, as the social network was originally built from scratch by Mark Zuckerberg and today Zuckerberg still sits at the top of the company. With the development and audience engagement with new media Facebook has become a very powerful company and is currently sitting at the top of the social network monopoly. As the most the popular of all the social networks Facebook has gained a lot of power and control over a lot of the internet. Websites which make use of Facebook’s ‘Like’ buttons or any form of Facebook Connect allow Facebook to track which users are browsing those websites, regardless of whether they interact with the content or not. These connections primarily appear to be a form of sharing for the user, however Facebook’s ever growing control throughout new media is raising a lot of privacy concerns.

GOOGLE+
The impact of new and digital media upon ownership and control of the media institutions

Google has also always been a new media institution, initially created as its first service, a web search engine. The growth of new media and demand for new media products such as communication and social networking has allowed Google to continue to grow into a powerful institution. Similarly to Facebook, Google’s domination over the internet gives them a lot of power. As with Facebook, using the use of ‘Like’ buttons to share content (and track our internet usage in the process), Google created their own alternative called +1 which does a similar function and became part of Google’s rival social network, Google+. Google, being most peoples default search engine, have a lot of control over the way the internet is used and consumed by audiences. Google uses the topics audiences enter into its search engine to target appropriate advertising to the user all over the internet through ‘behavioural targeting’. The power all this gives Google raises a lot of a privacy concerns for those who use it, websites such as google-watch.org have been setup to warn others of the potential privacy dangers of using the new media products.


Further information...  matthewsmedia.wordpress.com/.../case-study-new-media-impact-on-institution-ownership-and-control/