Ashly Dupre – Nobody to Somebody

In three short days, Ashley Dupre, whom had alleged financed sexual encounters with New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, went from being an unknown 22-year-old “aspiring musician” to the fifth most-searched subject on Google. Her music has had over 1.5 million plays. She basically went from being a “nobody” in terms of popularity on the web from being a “somebody” in a matter days, probably hours.

All of this does not surprise me. We live in a culture where having a sex tape helps your career. Where committing an illegal act can gain you pop-cult status. And you can be “famous” for doing absolutely nothing (Google “Don’t Taze Me Bro”)

There are two things that made me scratch my head and go “hmmmm” about this story.

First is that CNN, the station that brought you the first Gulf war (it has been said that The Defense Department was actually getting updates via CNN) broke this story using Ms. Dupre’s MySpace page content as a source. The first CNN profile is almost entirely made up of MySpace quotes - "I just don't want to be thought of as a monster," Dupre told the newspaper. She revealed little else in the interview, but her MySpace page offered some insight into her background.” – and they ran with it from there. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/ashley.myspace/index.html.

Social Media pages like MySpace, Face Book, LinkedIn, provides you an insight to people from all walks of life. What they do, what/who they like, what/who they hate, how they feel, etc. These meeting places are also becoming content providers to traditional media outlets. YouTube video subjects are on Letterman. MySpacers are getting their own shows (see VH1 programming), and now social media content is being mined for news stories by reputable news providers. Think about it – if a story breaks about a “nobody” affecting a “somebody” and you had to write a story about the “nobody”, wouldn’t you Google them first? Facebook and MySpace have become one of the go-to background tools for journalists in the past couple of years, allowing the esteemed members of the press to put a face (sometimes a lot more) to the subject of their story and find out more about them i.e. all of that content on all of those pages is up for grabs, brotha!

The second thing that struck me was how this whole thing with Ms. Dupre played out in her established social media spaces. Her pictures from her MYSpace pages and FaceBook were thrown all over the internet (yes, I used one!). CNN stated that, “time stamps and activity on what appears to be her Facebook profile shows she was staying up all night (Wednesday) cleaning up her profile and responding to critics on the Internet.” She was doing damage control. She doesn’t have “people”. By Thursday morning, she had over 1,100 friend requests on her FaceBook page. She then took everything down but it’s all back up, scrubbed and ready for your review Friday morning. See, publicity is publicity. Good or bad. And these social media pages can be used for good AND evil. Generally, folks don’t consider that they will be under the microscope like Ms Dupre. I don’t think she ever imagined that she would be part of a scandal that rocked New York’s government. She just wanted people to look at her pictures and listen to her songs. One must recognize that these public spaces are just that – public. Employers are Googling you if you are an interviewee for a new position. The press is looking for content if you suddenly become “somebody”. And VH1 needs a new show.

So, the next time you want to put up some crazy photos or post your deepest thoughts and feelings to your MySpace or FaceBook page, remember, we’re all watching and one day those photos and those thoughts might be on CNN.