Indiana University School of Journalism

Home » News » Holt’s ‘scouting’ report on Facebook privacy draws media attention

On the first day of spring classes, associate instructor and doctoral candidate Lanier Frush Holt greeted students in his section of J321 Principles of Public Relations with results of his "scouting" report. He had Googled their names to dig up information about them — such as their Facebook postings, some of which were quite candid.

Even as privacy on Facebook becomes an issue, college students are freely posting pictures and information that could be detrimental to their future job searches. Holt pointed this out with his experiment, and word of his attention-getting strategy now has gone national.

A radio show at Stanford University, “What Would Your Mother Say?” has invited Holt to talk to panelists of mothers and students who discuss issues of the day. The May 13 topic is on Facebook and the effects of revealing info on the social media site, according to producer Susan Morris.

The show airs at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, (8 p.m. local time) or listeners can tune into the program’s Web site. Click on “live streaming.”

Morris found out about the "scouting report" when Holt was quoted in a story in the May 5 issue of the Wall Street Journal about students’ privacy on sites such as Facebook. Columnist Jeff Zaslow wrote about "The Age of Humiliation," or the current climate of easy-to-find and easy-to-spread embarrassing information, much of it self-posted on the Web.

Zaslow, who visited the school last fall as a Speaker Series guest, also is the father of journalism student Jordan Zaslow. Her father writes that she told him about Holt’s report.

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