Whose space?
Taking over a social networking site is harder than it looks
BY Tim Querengesser
For those worried about corporate ownership of the web, Rupert Murdoch’s foray into the online world probably doesn’t seem as ominous now as it did when he bought MySpace in the summer of 2005 for US$580 million.
The ridiculously popular social networking site has so far proved immune to corporate control, instead leaving Murdoch scrambling to conform. In July, Wired magazine reported that Murdoch is having trouble bringing big advertisers to MySpace without sending users packing. MySpace, after all, is cool because it connects people to people, not people to things.
And this connection means powerful masses of users can immediately respond to any changes Murdoch makes. This summer, News Corp. had to backtrack on revisions to MySpace’s terms of use, which gave the company rights to members’ original songs (MySpace began as a way for artists to share music), after British activist-rocker Billy Bragg withdrew his music in protest.
Meanwhile, the seedy side of MySpace is making advertisers jittery. The space attracts pedophiles, pornstars and even Playboy scouts. (The magazine recently ran a “Girls of MySpace” photo spread.)
But if Murdoch tries to sanitize MySpace’s image, he could kill the Dionysian dirtiness that makes it work, sending notoriously fickle users elsewhere.
