Comments on: Teens, Banking, Twitter and Media Madness

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:29:49 +0000

Ken, I agree that there is nothing wrong with having an intern write a “how my friends and I use social media” report. However, that is not how either Morgan Stanley or Bloomberg framed the report.

What was wrong, IMO, was how Morgan Stanley and the business press used the report. Morgan Stanley, for being disingenuous; the business press, for being stenographers rather than reporters.

And I say this as someone who once-upon-a-time was a “pr person.”

By: Kenneth Rufo

Kenneth Rufo — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:09:29 +0000

I’m not sure I understand the vitriolic reaction to this piece. An intern was asked to write a report about social media and queried his friends for their digital media use habits and reasons they thought explained those habits. Not a dispositive or conclusive report, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with these more qualitative or phenomenological attempts at providing metrics. And surely when someone finds it to be clear and insightful, they can do so because for them those words might reflect standards like clarity of prose, a sense of sincerity, and so on. I don’t see any reason to harsh on the report, or on the pick up of it. Should the report be qualified and placed in the context of other reports? Obviously. But it’s still interesting, concise, and useful for what it is.

By: LADunkin

LADunkin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:44:19 +0000

Kathy- I’m so glad you posted on this. I saw that article come across Twitter last night and was excited to read some metrics on teens and media, but once I read it couldn’t believe it had even been picked up. I was astonished they were reporting on ONE person’s opinions. Lost a little trust in this reader. I will say though, Matthew’s summer internship just got a little more interesting!