Keele University recently threatened students with disciplinary action over content on social networking site, Facebook. In contention were the groups “James Knowles is a tw*t” and “Janet Finch- Something must be done” – both referring to staff.
While many media , like the Telegraph and the BBC, have been covering the story, the web 2.0 community began discussing the university’s handling of the situation. In-Cider Knowledge suggested it shows “just how far many institutions are from ‘getting it.’”
Given the amount of coverage, it could be questioned whether the negative impact of intervention and resulting media attention has been greater than that of the original groups. And, what will the approach actually achieve amongst an audience that uses social networking sites like these as part of everyday life?
