outsmart your haters

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Snakes get a badrapin the Holv Landajust ask Eve-so I am surprised by Israel's r*l_l?:li: jp,i tr SOCIAL NORMS tr TRAVEL E USER'S GUIDE TECHNOLOGY Outsmart Your Haters. How to win the online reputation game BY ANITAHAMITTON It's A wIGgtIr.tAREscENARIO that anyone who hashad a nasty breakupmight fear. On April ro, Tricia Walsh-Smith posted the first of three Web videosin which sheattacked her soon-to-be ex-husband for everythingfromhis alleged shortcomings in bedto what shecouldn t standabouthis family. Viewedmillions of times on Youlube,Walsh- Smith svideosreflect a grow- ing trend: unbridled online attacks arewreaking havocon people's reputations. Once dismissed asthe rant- ings ofrandom hecklers, nega- tive commentson the Web are being taken more seriously Fighting back KentState's Idsvoog posted a scathing video after he got slamme d onRateMvProfess or s r$$sltl$ttll$nBmffirNI Photograph for TIME by Greg Ruffing-Redux

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Snakes get a bad rap in the HolvLandajust ask Eve-so I am

surprised by Israel's r*l_l?:li: jp,i

t r SOCIAL NORMS t r TRAVEL E USER'S GUIDE

TECHNOLOGY

OutsmartYourHaters.How to winthe onlinereputationgameBY ANITA HAMITTON

I t 's A wIGgtI r . tARE scENARIO

that anyone who has had anasty breakup might fear. OnApril ro, Tricia Walsh-Smithposted the first of three Webvideos in which she attackedher soon-to-be ex-husband foreverythingfromhis allegedshortcomings in bed to whatshe couldn t stand about hisfamily. Viewed millions oftimes on Youlube, Walsh-Smith s videos reflect a grow-ing trend: unbridled onlineattacks are wreaking havoc onpeople's reputations.

Once dismissed as the rant-ings ofrandom hecklers, nega-tive comments on the Web arebeing taken more seriously

Fighting back KentState's Idsvoogposted a scathing video after he gotslamme d on RateMvProfess or s

r$$sltl$ttll$nBmffirNI

Photograph for TIME by Greg Ruffing-Redux

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The caption says, "Idsvoog posted a scathing video..." Not accurate. In fact, that would not have been possible. Time included a nice staged photo, but the local reporter for the Record Courier in the article following got it right.

these days. As the barbs haveescalated, so too have the waYsthat people are fighting back.Some folks sue for defama-tion. Others trY to engage theircritics by posting a resPonseonline or asking thattheoffending material be removed'Still others take the ultimatestep-hiring firms that spe-cialize in online-rePutationmanagement-to recraft theirWeb image altogether.

Such extreme image-oolishin g measures underscoreirowthe\Meb is changing theway our real-world rePutationsare formed. Off-line derogatorYcomments about You can beeasily spread behind Your backbut can also be easi\ forgotten."Now we have this giant mega-phone of the Internet,whereevery little whisPer aboutsomeone shows uP in Google,"says Matt Zimmerman, seniorstiff attorney for the ElectronicFrontier Foundation.

Fighting back can befraught with comPlications.Wikipedia founder |immYWales was notoriouslY outedin zoo5 for attemPting towhitewash his own entry onthe site. Now there's a seParatesite, Wikiwatcher, that aimsto unmask similar transgres-sions. Barack Obama launcheda website, Fight the Smears, todebunk false rumors abouthisbackground. "It is ridiculoushow you can Post somethingonthe Internet and notbe ac-countable for it," saYs ChrisMartin, founder of the online-reputation-management fi rmReputationHawk.

Suing for defamation maYseem like the most obvious waY

Making amend s After gettingpannedonYelpforlousy seruice ather store

in San lwe, Calif,, Kellinger apoilogized and the customer revixd her critique

mvlife." That critic, Tumoke[ones, was so impressedwiththe apology that she rePlacedher negative review with apositive one. Karl Idsvoog, ajournalism professor at KentState University in Ohio,responded to accusations onRateMyProfessors that he *'asa "rude, disrespectful, Preten'tious snob"with aWeb videoon Professors Strike Back.The site is aptly named, andldsvoog's commentarY on itis withering: "We're not thereto babysit. We're there to trainprofessionals. Grow uP."

If vou don't have the stom-ach to defend yourself, thenew and growing industrY ofonline-reputation-mana ge-ment firms will do it for You.The firms'primarY goal is tokeep the first page of a client'sGoogle searchresults free ofnegative links. "We call the toPfivi search results the'dangerzone,'because you donit evenhave to scroll down to seethem," says RePutation Hawk'sMartin. For $r,5oo a month,the company will create Webpages that cast You in a Posi-tive light (preferablY with Yourname inthe unr), Postlinksto positive mentions of You onsocial-bookmarking sites likeDigg and Del.icio.us and startbiogs on Blogger or WordPress.

"You take all this new in-formation we create and Putso much Pressure on the toP roresults in Google that the falsenegative stuff gets Pusheddown," says Martin. "Onceit's pushed out of the toP ro,they're PrettY much O'K."

Reputation managers stressthat they won t helP PeoPlewho come by theirbad rePsrishtlv. "Every fraudster in thewirtaininrc ihat we're hereto help them out, butwe'renot," says Robert Russo, cro ofDefendMyName. But it's stilla good idea to click to the nextG6ogle page to look for cYber-skeletons, since bad guYs-particular\ the deeP-Pocketedones-can use the megaPhoneof the Web to reshaPe theirim-aqe. For everyone else, it's nicetJknow thai when the virtualcommunity sta rts to whisper,

to stop the Problem. But to winyour case,youhave to Provethat intentionallY false state-ments have hurt more thanyour feelings. (Walsh-Smithgot her comeupPance via a dif-ierent route: in granting thecouple's divorce, a New Yorkjudge citedher "calculated andcallous campaign to embarrassand humiliate her husband"and upheld the prenuPtialagreement she had sought toannul.) You also have to knowwhomto sue,which canbevirtually impossible, since somany Web posts-esPeciallYon gossip sites like Faceliss andthe Dirty-are anonymous.What's more, the 1996 Com-munications DecencY Actfrees site operators from liabil-ity forposts by commenters.

A more reasonable aPProachis to confront Your detractorsdirectly. "The answer to badspeech is more speech," saYsGoosle fellow Matt Cutts, whohelpi lead the team in chargeof rinking algorithms forthesearch engine. You can start bYsetting up a free Google Alertthat e-mails you everYtimeyour name appears in a blogpost or on a website. This atieastlets vouknow ifvou have aproblem, and often with whom.

The tough part ofreachingout to your critics is knowingwhat to say. Selena Kellinger,owner ofpartY store Razz-berry Lips in Sanfose, Calif.,apologized to a customer whocomplained on YelP that shehad "never seen a more un-professional grouP ofidiots in

FIGHTING WEB SMEARS

ENGAGE ON YOUR OWNAttacks can lose their sting ifyou calmly resPond to them

How To Do lT: Post a leply'create your own site to correctthe recold or send an e'mailrequesting a retraction

HIRE A PROFirms post flattering Web contentabout you on Popular sites

HOW To Do lT: Hire areputation-management f irmsuch as DefendMYName orReputation Hawk

@FILE A LAWSUIT

Can be done, but-free-sPeechprotections make it hard to win

HOW To DO lT: Contact a lawyerwith experience in handlingdefamation cases' You mustprove you have been harmed

3youcannowshoutback. I

uut October 6, zooS

MnncARETns NorrPADWhen Time magazine features a large

color photo of you wearing a sign that reads"Eats children for breakfast," chances are itgets you noticed. The photo caught the at-tention of my parents, John and MargaretMurvay. My mother called and asked if Iknew Karl Idsvoog, the subject of the photoand an assistant professor in the School ofJournalism and Mass Communication atKent State University.

The photo in the Oct. 6 issue went with -the story "Outsmart yourhaters: How to win MlRCengfthe online reputation game." Reporter Anita GeRUOlrtHamilton described how victims of smearsposted on Web sites are fighting back to save reputations.

Unflattering comments about Idsvoog were posted onRateMyProfessors.com and quoted in Time. The comments

described him as a "rude, disrespectful,pretentious snob." Rate My Professors, aproduction of MTV allows students to postcomments - unfiltered - about faculty theyhave had for classes.

MTV also has a counter Web site, Profes-sors Strike Back. As expected of investiga-tive reporters, Idsvoog does have a thick skinand he showed a sense of humor when wetalked about the postings on Rate My Prof'es-sors and Idsvoog's response video that MTVposted on ProfessorsStrikeBack.com. His

commentary states that as faculty "We're not there to baby-sit. We're there to train professionals. Grow up."

Favorable comments also were posted for Idsvoog on RateMy Professor. I also had an opportunity to talk to two of lds-voog's former students who have certainly gone on to biggerre and better things after graduating with JMC

degrees from KSU.Carrie Wise is the producer and host of

Studio 55 online video reports for the NaplesDaily News in Naples, Fla. Justin Kier is aweather anchor and reporter for WACH Foxaffiliate in Columbia, S.C. Both earned na-tional awards for class assignments that werebroadcast on TV-2 and posted on the StudentMedia Web site. Wise and Kier had seen thecomments on both Web sites.

Both admitted that Idsvooswas tough andthis is a goodcritical about their work and thev stressed that

thing for students pursuing a career in televi-sion news reporting and production.

For Wise, students need the type of criti-cism Idsvoog gives when they don't ask fol-low-up questions or get the assignments rightthe first time, Better to hear the criticismfrom a professor and know what the profes-sional expectations are up front instead offrom a news director when on the job.

"Karl taught me how to be a critical thinkerand to ask the tough questions," Wise added.

For Kier, "Karl was the best prof I had atKent State. He's my mentor as well." Kier recalled that Ids-voog taught students to avoid superficiality, go in-depth andask follow-up questions. A 2006 graduate, Kier is one of twofinalists for the Radio and Television News Directors Associ-ation for best weathercast in the markets coverinq both Northand South Carolina"

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but added that Idsvoog is also very fair and very honest, andhas been flexible with deadlines if the result will be a higherquality product. And no matter if you were ul 'A" student ornot, Idsvoog was available to help students with rdsumds andnews tapes when applying for jobs.

How MTV came to post the video is a story in'itself. Ids-voog and JMC colleague David Smeltzer traveled to NewYor[ to conduct interviews for mediajobpod.org, a Web sitethat provides career advice for multimedia journalists andproduction majors. Visitors to mediajobpod.org can^-watchinterviews with JMC alumni and professionals who offer ad-vice on how to apply for, land and keep a job in news andmultimedia production. Carol Costello of CNN and BillHemmer ofFox News are among the many successes whotalk about their experiences.

Idsvoog and Smeltzer contacted JMC alum Chuck Thorn'ton, a MTV producer for Professors Strike Back, for an inter-view to be posted on mediajobpod.org' While there, Thorn-ton taped Idsvoog and posted the video on Professors StrikeBack. When Idsvoog's story was picked up by Time maga-zine, Greg Ruffing, a JMC graduate, took the photo for Timetkough Redux.

Idsvoog's professional, academic and frontline reportingexperience is extensive. Idsvoog was the first American towork inside Syrian National Television. He has conductedtraining sessiols for the U.S. Department of State, Interna-tional Center for Journalists, Internews, and the InternationalResearch and Exchanges Board. As president and owner ofFirst Amendment Investigations, Idsvoog's assignments havetaken him to the Republic of Georgia, Atmenia, Syria, Egypt'Yemen, and other countries.

And Idsvoog assures me that he does not eat children forbreakfast; breakfast is strictly coffee.

Idsvoog admitted he is demanding. Wise and Kier agreed,

Have a suggestion for a column item about Kent StateUniversity or local Kent organizations? Contact MargarelGarmon at (330) 678-1450 or [email protected].