Journalism + Digital Reputation

A lesson in privacy, publicity and online

first impressions

Marie K. ShanahanAssistant Professor of

JournalismUniversity of Connecticut

@mariekshan

Plug your name into a search engine

“When I put my full name into Google Search, none of the immediate results are related to me. There’s a stained glass artist, a professor at Assumption College, the Wikipedia page of a jockey from the 1800s.”

“My online reputation is nearly invisible. None of the search results were about me.”

The INVISIBLE JOURNALIST

“I am not even really on the map.”

“My name is so common. I share it with hundreds across the United States.”

You must have me confused with someone else

Rachel Weisz image by snarky1 via Flickr/Wikimedia Commons, cc

“Sharing almost an entire name with a gorgeous celebrity married to Daniel Craig has its benefits. But I am much harder to find…My digital footprint, clearly, is not very good.”

“After pages and pages about an ex-NFL backup quarterback, I finally found most of my journalism work.”

Image via nfl.com

“If you search Google Images for my name, you will find a photo of a boy about my age who goes to the University of Connecticut with the same name. He is less concerned about his image. This concerns me. I am uncertain what to do about it.”

I’M THE OTHER GUY. Really.

Image via Twitter user @YAWWWWWW

IRRELEVANT RESULTS

“No articles or previous work…It shows I may not have much journalism experience.”

“I don’t have anything offensive or embarrassing, but what’s there is unnecessary information.”

“To think that so much of your personal information is so blatantly available to the rest of the world can be terrifying.” 

STUNNING LACK OF PRIVACY

“So much of my life is made public these days and without my consent.”

“I am a bit alarmed three of my random Facebook photos are featured on Google Images.”

“I don’t have anything against my pictures being the first to show in Google Images, except the fact that those are pictures from my ex-boyfriend’s MySpace account.”

I’ve been tagged, unfortunately

Follow up LESSONS

Be your own digital publicist: Useful strategies for online reputation management

Ethics: How journalists impact the online reputations of others

Internet meme images created with memegenerator.net

Background image by sakurabonodori via deviantart.com