Something about celebrities combined with Twitter is just a magnet for headlines and mass media attention. Perhaps it is because our society has an unhealthy obsession with celebrities, and Twitter (and really just social media in general) is turning the web as we know it into a never-ending “stream” of information.
It should be no surprise that when big stars like Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers are forbidden from Twitter, the headlines follow. The story is slightly more interesting than a celebrity simply deciding to stop Twittering. An IMDB article (via Mashable) reports:
Filmmakers are becoming increasingly worried about actors ruining plots and damaging the industry by putting up messages on the public website.
Executives at Dreamworks have forbidden actors from giving out information on the internet by inserting clauses into their contracts – with Diaz and Myers, who are lined up to star in another Shrek sequel next year, the first affected by the move.
The forbidding of social networking is something we’ve seen corporations and major sports leagues do. They’re all businesses, and movie studios are businesses too. It’s not a surprise when you really think about it. Whether it is justified or not is a different story.
As Stan Schroeder notes, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are just forms of communication. “You can also leak information by, you now, speaking, or writing an email.”
Celebrities can do a lot more than just leak confidential information with social networks, however. A session at the BlogWorld Expo held over the weekend covered this. Anthony Edwards, for example, is using social media to raise money and awareness for a children’s hospital in Africa.
