A few years ago in the UK, Zoe Margolis was outed by the Sunday Times as 'Abby' Lee', author of the blog 'Girl With a One Track Mind'. According to her blog, what happened was that a journalist came to her house and asked her to sign for a bunch of flowers, supposedly from her publishers, while hidden photographers look a picture of her at the door. Since then, the journalist's apparently tried to defend herself by describing Zoe Margolis's use of a pseudonym as a 'marketing gimmick'.
Yeah, totally. It's not because it was a controversial topic that would be completely humiliating if people she knew read it. It's not because she didn't want all the guys she wrote about realising who they were or anything. I am actually a huge fan of her blog, I thought what she wrote about was so true and it was totally different to the image of women that's presented in the media. I really related to it and thought the advice she gave was brilliant, but now that she has to censor herself, while the blog's still good, it's just not the same.
I don't think the journalist who did the outing really stopped to think about the impact she'd be having on people's lives. In her blog, Margolis expresses her dismay at the complete lack of integrity shown by the paper that outed her. It wasn't just the blogger who was affected, her family, friends and the guys she wrote about were affected too. The blog wouldn't have been as good if she'd written it under her real name, because she wouldn't have felt comfortable being so honest.
Apparently something similar happened with the blog 'Night Jack', which was written by a policeman, and the justification used was that he was in a position of responsibility so it was 'in the public interest' or something like that.I haven't actually read his blog, but it sounds like it would've been really interesting. This guy actually tried to get an injunction to stop a journalist revealing his identity, but the judge refused to grant it, ruling that 'blogging is essentially a public rather than a private activity.'
I don't think the judge took into account the fact that some of the most amazing blogs are written anonymously, and part of the reason they're so amazing is that under a cloak of anonymity, these people feel comfortable revealing things that they wouldn't even tell their best friends. Which can make for pretty powerful writing.
I honestly don't get why journalists feel the need to hunt down bloggers and out them. Perhaps it's a 'new vs old media' thing? Maybe they feel threatened by this new type of writer. Maybe they think if the whole blogging thing really takes off, they'll be out of a job.
But honestly, I don't think that's going to be a huge issue. Blogging has its advantages, but like I said in my last post, I think there's a place for both types of media.
Fourteen
6 years ago
Posts
The issue of anonymity on the internet is a compelling one.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with what you’re saying. After all, the whole appeal of posting things on the net is that no one knows who you are, and you can be who ever you want to be. Let’s face it, not everyone has the confidence, or even the power to post what they want under their real names. Like, if you were a lowly office worker and you posted a blog under your real name mouthing off about your job and your boss, you’d likely get fired. This way, you can blow off steam without any consequences.
I also find it pretty interesting that authors in the real world also use different names when publishing books. Anonymity in that sense has been around for ages, and no journalists have ever really felt the need to ‘out’ those authors.
I think maybe it comes down to journalists feeling threatened. Blogs are becoming increasingly popular, and so many people are turning to them for news and opinions about everything, that conventional journalism is losing both popularity and momentum, and journalists don’t like the fact that we are happy to get news from an anonymous source.
Actually, do you remember that book The Bride Stripped Bare from a few years ago? The British press went crazy because it was published anonymously, then they outed Nikki Gemmell as the author.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, it seems to be a bigger deal with blogs for some stupid reason. Thanks for commenting btw, my blog feels slightly less lonely now lol :D