ESPN's updated Social Media Policy went into effect approximately two weeks ago without much attention. On August 26, 2011, a few days after ESPN's new rules were implemented I stated,
During the last several years, many major news stories have been reported first on Twitter. Some of these stories include: the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, the 2009 Hudson River plane crash, and the death of Osama Bin Laden. During the NFL lockout earlier this year, sports reporters regularly posted breaking news updates on Twitter and then followed them up by more in depth articles at a later time.
Therefore, unless ESPN eliminates its "Do not break news on Twitter" guidelines, ESPN's reporters will risk other news outlets breaking news before ESPN has the ability to do so. The leaders of ESPN may want to rethink their new policy because as it stands it only hurts its ability to compete in the Social Media Age."
On September 4, 2011, John Michael Vincent of ESPN 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis tweeted, "Been told by multi sources that QB P Manning needs a 2nd neck procedure. Will remain out indefinitely.Called #colts and waiting on response."
This was a great scoop that sent the media and NFL fans into a frenzy trying to obtain official confirmation from the Indianapolis Colts about Peyton Manning's status for the season. Indianapolis was forced to issue a statement within 24 hours of Mr. Vincent's Tweet to discuss the matter. Fortunately for ESPN, Mr. Vincent works for them and ESPN as an organization may be credited for this breaking news.
What if Mr. Vincent waited until his radio show to discuss this breaking news and another reporter from a competing organization or a random social media user broke the story first because ESPN wants its talent to discuss breaking news on their platforms before using social media to disseminate information? A scoop like this does not happen every day and this is why ESPN must reevaluate its online policies to better reflect the reality of the Social Media Age.
To learn how your organization may create a Social Media Policy that does not harm your brand or bottom line you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label Social Media in Sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media in Sports. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
The NCAA, Social Media Monitoring, Censorship, the First Amendment, the Supreme Court, and Video Games
Last week, the NCAA may have created a major legal liability quagmire for its member institutions when it alleged that the University of North Carolina failed to monitor the social media activity of its football players.
Social Media/Social Networking Monitoring may lead to Social Media Censorship. Social Media Censorship by NCAA institutions may be gaining acceptance in some schools. According to the Washington Post, the University of Maryland (UMD) may be actively monitoring and regulating the speech of the members of its football team. It appears that UMD is monitoring defensive lineman A.J. Francis' Twitter account. Does Maryland require all of its athletes to turn over their social media account names to their compliance staff? Or, is it only the men's football team?
Could there be a Title IX or a 14th Amendment Equal Protection clause violation if Maryland is only monitoring the men's football team and not treating other teams and/or genders equally? Are only a few athletes of the men's football team being singled out? How did Maryland obtain A.J. Francis' Twitter account information? Did Maryland's compliance department require A.J. Francis to provide it his social media account user names in order to continue to be on the football team and/or receive academic aid?
According to the Clarion Ledger, University of Mississippi signee C.J. Johnson deleted his personal Twitter account after speaking with the Ole Miss athletic department staff. Ole Miss has publicly stated that it did not force C.J. Johnson to close his Twitter account. C.J. Johnson's Twitter activity may be objectionable to some people and it may be best for him to stop tweeting for the time being; however, what if a school gives a student an ultimatum: stop your social media activity or lose your scholarship and/or be kicked out of school?
What if the University of Maryland told Larry David (Seinfeld Co-Creator), Jim Henson (Creator of the Muppets), David Simon (Co-Writer of The Wire), Sergey Brin (Co-Founder Google), Steny Hoyer (Former House Majority Leader), Carl Bernstein (Former Washington Post Watergate Journalist), etc... or the University of Mississippi told William Faulkner (Author), John Grisham (Author), Sheppard Smith (Host of the Fox Report), Gerald McRaney (Actor), and Bill Parsons (Director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center) that they should stop publicly expressing their personal and/or political views while they attended their respective schools? If a public college and/or university starts regulating what its student-athletes express on social media what will stop it from trying to regulate what other members of the student body state online?
The NCAA 2010-2011 Division I Manual does not appear to discuss Social Media/Social Networking Monitoring and/or censorship so I am not sure how public schools thinks that it is acceptable to monitor and then censor its student-athletes.
In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the Supreme Court in a 7-2 majority recently ruled that "disgust is not a valid basis for restricting expression." Justice Scalia wrote, "[l]ike the protected books, plays and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas — and even social messages — through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world)....That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.” Since video games are now constitutionally protected forms of expressive behavior will the First Amendment protect most types of social media activity no matter how offensive unless they defame and/or violate other areas of the law?
Any school that deploys a social media monitoring service to monitor its student-athletes may want to reevaluate their policy. Colleges and universities that utilize social media monitoring and receive government funding may also be creating further unanticipated legal issues. As I have stated over and over, academic institutions should be educating their students about social media and not monitoring and censoring them.
To learn more about these issues you may contact me at http://shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Social Media/Social Networking Monitoring may lead to Social Media Censorship. Social Media Censorship by NCAA institutions may be gaining acceptance in some schools. According to the Washington Post, the University of Maryland (UMD) may be actively monitoring and regulating the speech of the members of its football team. It appears that UMD is monitoring defensive lineman A.J. Francis' Twitter account. Does Maryland require all of its athletes to turn over their social media account names to their compliance staff? Or, is it only the men's football team?
Could there be a Title IX or a 14th Amendment Equal Protection clause violation if Maryland is only monitoring the men's football team and not treating other teams and/or genders equally? Are only a few athletes of the men's football team being singled out? How did Maryland obtain A.J. Francis' Twitter account information? Did Maryland's compliance department require A.J. Francis to provide it his social media account user names in order to continue to be on the football team and/or receive academic aid?
According to the Clarion Ledger, University of Mississippi signee C.J. Johnson deleted his personal Twitter account after speaking with the Ole Miss athletic department staff. Ole Miss has publicly stated that it did not force C.J. Johnson to close his Twitter account. C.J. Johnson's Twitter activity may be objectionable to some people and it may be best for him to stop tweeting for the time being; however, what if a school gives a student an ultimatum: stop your social media activity or lose your scholarship and/or be kicked out of school?
What if the University of Maryland told Larry David (Seinfeld Co-Creator), Jim Henson (Creator of the Muppets), David Simon (Co-Writer of The Wire), Sergey Brin (Co-Founder Google), Steny Hoyer (Former House Majority Leader), Carl Bernstein (Former Washington Post Watergate Journalist), etc... or the University of Mississippi told William Faulkner (Author), John Grisham (Author), Sheppard Smith (Host of the Fox Report), Gerald McRaney (Actor), and Bill Parsons (Director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center) that they should stop publicly expressing their personal and/or political views while they attended their respective schools? If a public college and/or university starts regulating what its student-athletes express on social media what will stop it from trying to regulate what other members of the student body state online?
The NCAA 2010-2011 Division I Manual does not appear to discuss Social Media/Social Networking Monitoring and/or censorship so I am not sure how public schools thinks that it is acceptable to monitor and then censor its student-athletes.
In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the Supreme Court in a 7-2 majority recently ruled that "disgust is not a valid basis for restricting expression." Justice Scalia wrote, "[l]ike the protected books, plays and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas — and even social messages — through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world)....That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.” Since video games are now constitutionally protected forms of expressive behavior will the First Amendment protect most types of social media activity no matter how offensive unless they defame and/or violate other areas of the law?
Any school that deploys a social media monitoring service to monitor its student-athletes may want to reevaluate their policy. Colleges and universities that utilize social media monitoring and receive government funding may also be creating further unanticipated legal issues. As I have stated over and over, academic institutions should be educating their students about social media and not monitoring and censoring them.
To learn more about these issues you may contact me at http://shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Will Tweets Destroy the NFL and NFLPA CBA Negotiations?
The NFL's collective bargaining agreement is set to expire tonight at 11.59 p.m. There has already been two previous extensions and it is unknown whether another extension or a break-down in the negotiations will occur.
Both sides are entrenched in their positions and are doing everything they can to win the hearts and minds of the fans of the NFL. However, one thing that is troubling is that last night both sides fanned the flames via Twitter. George Cohen, the federal mediator who is working with the NFL and NFLPA to resolve their differences had previously asked the parties to keep quiet about the negotiations. For most of the past two weeks both sides appeared to follow Cohen's request until last night.
One of my favorite negotiating books is called, "The Power of Nice" and it is written by highly respected Sports Agent/Attorney Ronald M. Shapiro. On page 39 of the book, Shapiro discusses how the confidentiality of the Camp David Peace process worked to benefit both Egypt and Israel in reaching a long-term peach agreement that has lasted for more than 30 years. Shapiro contrasted the Camp David negotiations with the failed mediation for the 1994-1995 Major League Baseball labor dispute. Shapiro states, "knowing that what was said would go no further-enabled discussions to take place that could never have occurred in a public forum." The baseball mediation blew up when neither side could trust each other to keep confidences.
Therefore, I recommend that both sides impose a Twitter Gag Order before the situation totally breaks down. Going back and forth on Twitter like school children is not professional. Some of the Tweets I have read may make great entertainment but the goal of a Tweet should be to bridge the communication gap and not burn a bridge.
To learn how to negotiate in the social media age you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Both sides are entrenched in their positions and are doing everything they can to win the hearts and minds of the fans of the NFL. However, one thing that is troubling is that last night both sides fanned the flames via Twitter. George Cohen, the federal mediator who is working with the NFL and NFLPA to resolve their differences had previously asked the parties to keep quiet about the negotiations. For most of the past two weeks both sides appeared to follow Cohen's request until last night.
One of my favorite negotiating books is called, "The Power of Nice" and it is written by highly respected Sports Agent/Attorney Ronald M. Shapiro. On page 39 of the book, Shapiro discusses how the confidentiality of the Camp David Peace process worked to benefit both Egypt and Israel in reaching a long-term peach agreement that has lasted for more than 30 years. Shapiro contrasted the Camp David negotiations with the failed mediation for the 1994-1995 Major League Baseball labor dispute. Shapiro states, "knowing that what was said would go no further-enabled discussions to take place that could never have occurred in a public forum." The baseball mediation blew up when neither side could trust each other to keep confidences.
Therefore, I recommend that both sides impose a Twitter Gag Order before the situation totally breaks down. Going back and forth on Twitter like school children is not professional. Some of the Tweets I have read may make great entertainment but the goal of a Tweet should be to bridge the communication gap and not burn a bridge.
To learn how to negotiate in the social media age you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2011 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
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