Flemington, NJ, May 5, 2009 – A new national media study among 300 Americans revealed that the majority (58%) indicated that a restaurant was wrong for firing an employee in response to her negative comments posted on MySpace.

The study was conducted by the MediaCurves.com® website on May 4, to obtain Americans’ perceptions of a recent case involving a New Jersey restaurant, Houston’s, and an employee, Doreen Marino, who was allegedly fired for negative comments about the company and employees on a private MySpace forum.

“Based on our analysis of the automated response curves, we saw that both men and women agree that it was a violation of Ms. Marino’s privacy,” commented Glenn Kessler, President and CEO, HCD Research.

The study also revealed that 58% of respondents reported that this was an invasion of privacy on the company’s part.  Less than half of respondents (42%) indicated that Houston’s was justified in their actions against Marino, which included her immediate termination from the company. 

Among the findings:

“Do you think employees should be penalized at work for posting negative or off-putting comments, statuses, etc on social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) about their company?”

“As stated in the video, Doreen Marino is now suing the owner of Houston’s for invasion of privacy. Do you feel that this situation was an invasion of privacy on the employer’s part?”

“Was the employer, Houston’s, justified in their actions against Doreen Marino?”

While viewing the video clip, participants indicated their levels of agreement by moving their mouse from left to right on a continuum. The responses were recorded in quarter-second intervals and reported in the form of curves. The participants were also asked to respond to post-viewing questions.

MediaCurves.com® (www.mediacurves.com) is a media measurement website that provides the media and general public with a venue to view Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events and advertisements.  MediaCurves.com is a service of HCD Research, a communications research company headquartered in Flemington, NJ.  The company's services include traditional and web-based communications research.  For additional information on HCD Research, access the company’s web site at www.hcdi.net or call HCD Research at 908-788-9393.

Editors/Reporters: For more information on the study, or to speak with Glenn Kessler, president and CEO, HCD Research, please contact Vince McGourty, HCD Research, at (908) 483-9121 or (vince.mcgourty@hcdi.net).