“Is your mystery person a guy or a girl?” I ask my sister, Mary, while playing our favorite childhood game: Guess Who?
“Dude,” Mary says, “My turn...Is your person bald?”
“Nope” I reply, “Does your ‘dude’ wear a hat?”
“Yeah…” Mary replies, this time with less excitement.
“I know who it is…BERNARD!” I enthusiastically declare. She always picks Bernard, I thought.
In this guessing game, two players try to determine the identity of their opponent's mystery character. A player begins with no information or clues; they only have the opportunity to inquire facts based upon characteristics. After each question, the feeling of frustration—caused from the unknowing—subsides as each player gets progressively closer to discovering the mystery character.
Guess Who? is based on one primary objective: the elimination of anonymity, which is the state of being un-identifiable. In this digital era, the ever-expanding capacity of the Internet has promoted an increase in blogging. Used for both personal and professional purposes, blogging has influenced the way in which we construct, acquire, and disseminate information. I am interested in discussing the role and affects of anonymity in relation to blogging; specifically, I want to explore the influence of anonymity on citizen journalism.
Anonymity on the Internet allows people to be virtually unnamed, remaining a mystery. We are left to guess who users are; where they come from; and what organizations or things they represent. I consider the anonymity of Internet users to be a freedom with a cost. Have you ever read a blog and wondered something of the sort: “Who the heck is IHateGoats467? And, why do they always bash my posts?” If that example does not apply to you, then maybe you have heard of (or experienced…I won’t judge) a dating website in which users create virtual personas that are absurdly erroneous. Dream_Guy_411 is not a 28 year-old, dark and handsome CEO of a major corporation in California; but he can claim to be online. Anonymity allows this.
I believe there are two primary motives for anonymity. First, users can write about their perceived truth and participate in public discussion—with security in knowing their identity is concealed and protected from harm. Second, users can make deceitful and repugnant remarks without serious repercussion. Anonymity grants users to initiate influence, but their motives play an integral role in the affects of such communicative behavior.
In relation to citizen journalism, anonymity allows the voices of people, anyone from anywhere, to be heard. According to this week’s reading from Citizen Journalism, communication is ultimately “unedited” and “uncensored” in the constructs of citizen journalism. For example: through blogging, suppressed civilians in Palestine were able to express ideas and reflect on their troubling environment. The peoples’ voices—normally silenced by misrepresentation in the media and negligent political leaders—were publicized on an open forum. The ability to be anonymous or not allowed users to experience personal and political liberation. Even with a corrupt government, Palestinian citizen journalists widened pubic participation. Their intentions were not malicious; rather, they wanted the world to know the dark reality of economic and social suppression in Palestine.
In China, another case of citizen journalism and anonymity were observed with attention to a severe earthquake. Civilian participation on Tianya Club, a national blogging community known for tolerance on liberal ideas, challenged the authority and censorship of the Chinese government. When the high-scale Wenchuan Earthquake hit China, causing devastation and many casualties, citizen journalists were the first to report on this natural disaster. After people started questioning the government’s rationale for not alerting China’s people of a potential quake, online public discussion blew up like the Hiroshima bomb. Anonymous bloggers posted discussions that challenged the government’s authority. Soon the government intervened and began to erase civilian posts. Additionally, anonymity enabled the government to hire bloggers who disguised themselves as civilians in support of government’s actions. People were confused and in an uproar. In this case, anonymity allowed the government to establish a false identity and conceal their culpable practices.
The intricacy of anonymity stimulates an invigorating debate. The affects of this online, communicative freedom must be acknowledged. As consumers of digital media, we must be careful about the source of content and motives of people who communicate with, or at us online. Guessing who is no longer a childhood game, it is a fact of life.
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