anonymity and responsibility in the Japanese blogosphere

Here is a very interesting piece by Hiroko Nagano on anonymity and responsibility in the Japanese blogosphere. The original Japanese article is followed by my translation and comments.

Original:

Ben & Menaの来日、「素晴らしき世界」と「しがない記者日記」を巡る議論

先週は、ブログの飲み会3つと、米シックス・アパート社の共同創設者であるベン＆ミナ・トロット夫妻、バラック・バーコヴィッツCEOの来日などが重なり、改めてブログに関して考えさせられる機会が多かった。そのなかで、ベンとミナ、バラックの取材でも話題になったブログの記事をめぐるトラブルの問題について考えてみた。

最近は日本でも匿名ブログに書き込んだ内容に批判が集中して、実名を晒されるという事件が立て続けに起こっている。その代表的なものは、「素晴らしき世界」の運営者ミッドナイトパックス氏の「自己責任論」をめぐる議論（詳細はカレーとご飯の神隠しのまとめサイト参照）、okuma氏の「しがない記者日記」騒動（幻影随想のまとめサイト参照）だろう。

どちらも、現役の新聞記者が運営する匿名ブログであるという点、反論に対していい加減な返答しか行わなかったという点で共通しており、それが波紋を広げた大きな原因になっている。匿名であれば気軽に本音を書けるような気がするが、匿名であっても自分の意見を表明するという点では同じなので、慎重に書く必要がある。レベッカ・ブラッドは、ココログのインタビューで「記事を掲載する前にもう一度よく読み直すことです。思ったことをすぐに掲載するのもブログの面白さのひとつですが、話題のニュースや物議をかもした事件について書く場合は、少し慎重になったほうがいいでしょうね。もう一度よく考えて、一晩、いや二晩は待ったほうがいいと思います」と述べている。

一方、読む側も、実名ブログより匿名ブログに対してのほうが批判的なコメントを書き込みやすいのかもしれない。誰が書いているのか分からないので、実名や所属機関を知りたいと思うのも、自然な流れだろう。

また、ミッドナイトパックス氏とokuma氏に共通しているのは、批判的なコメントやトラックバックに対して、あまり誠実な対応を取らなかったいう点だ。言論を職業にしている新聞記者なのに、いや、だからこそ対等な議論を避けてしまったのだろうか。ここでも、もし匿名でなかったら少しは遠慮が出て、ここまで険悪な議論にならなかったのかもしれないという疑問が残る。いずれにしても、ブログのコミュニケーションは、相手を言い負かす必要はないものの、ある程度筋が通ったものでないと納得し難いという性質があるので、対応次第で結果は大きく変わっていただろうと思う。

こうした話を6Aのバラックにしたところ、「電話やメール、IM、掲示板などはそれぞれコミュニケーションの種類が異なっており、それをうまく使い分けて私たちはやり取りをしている。それと同様、私たちは試行錯誤を繰り返しながらブログという新しいメディアのコミュニケーションを学ぶ必要がある」と語った。6Aがライヴ・ジャーナルを買収したのも、誰に向かって話すのかというプライバシー・レベルを細かく設定できる技術を同社が持っていることが大きい。ミナ氏は「将来的には完全にオープンではなく家族や友人だけが読むことのできるブログなど、プライバシー・レベルを制御したブログが主流になるだろう」と述べた。公私のブログの使い分けなども、今後は増えていくような気がする。

Translation:

Ben and Mena's visit to Japan, and the "Wonderful World" and "Wretched Journalist Diary" dispute

Last week, I had plenty of chances to ponder blogs anew: I went to three blogger drinks gatherings, and Ben and Mena Trott, the couple who co-founded Six Apart, and the company's CEO, Barak Berkowitz, visited Japan. Amongst the various topics that arose, I gave some particular thought to the trouble that has been stirring around [Japanese] blog articles covering Ben, Mena and Barak's visit.

Recently in Japan, anonymous blogs have been drawing criticism, and there have been a succession of incidents where the real names of their authors have been exposed. Good examples of this are the discussion around "Responsibility" by Midnight Pax of Wonderful World (refer to Kare- to gohan no kami-gakushi for details) and the uproar over Okuma's "Wretched Journalist Diary" (refer to Collected Ramblings).

In both cases, jobbing journalists are writing anonymous blogs on which they give only cursory responses to others' rebuttals of their arguments. This combination of anonymity with a lack of responsibility is a big cause of the ripples that are spreading from these blogs. Anonymity encourages us to freely express our true feelings, but anonymous or not, our opinions remain our own opinions. For this reason, it is necessary to exercise prudence in our writing. In an interview with Cocolog, Rebecca Blood said the following: "Before publishing a piece we must read it over again carefully. One of the appealing aspects of blogs is the way they allow us to publish our thoughts in a timely way, but when we are writing about events that have made the news and stirred up public debate, it is surely advisable for us to act with discretion. Let's give ourselves time to think things over, waiting one or even two nights before pressing the "publish" button."

On the other hand, readers also perhaps find it easier to post critical comments on anonymous blogs than on named-author blogs. The desire to know the true name and organisational affiliation of an anonymous blog's author is also probably a natural tendency.

Another point that Midnight Pax and Okuma have in common is their rather insincere responses to critical comments and trackbacks on their blogs. Despite being newspaper reporters who make freedom of speech their career—or rather, for that very reason—they seem to be avoiding a fair debate. Here too, the suspicion remains that were these blogs not anonymous, a little more moderation would have been evident and the debate might not have ended up being so unpleasant. In any case, as participating in blog communication does not necessitate putting others down, and as, to a certain degree, writing that lacks coherence lacks persuasiveness, the responses of the blogs' authors surely have a big effect on the outcome of the discussion.

When I talked about this matter to 6A's Barak, he said this: "The various communication tools we use—telephone, email, bulletin boards and so on—all differ from one another, and we choose which one to use to converse with at any given time according to our communication needs. In the same way, we need to study the optimum modes of communication for this new blog media through a process of trial and error." A big factor in 6A's purchase of Live Journal was LJ's comprehensive functionality for controlling privacy levels to determine who one communicates with. Mina stated "In the future, blogs that are not completely open but are rather just for family or friends—blogs where privacy levels are controlled—will probably become mainstream." I have a feeling that the differences in the usage of public and private blogs, too, will only grow larger.

It seems to me that the structure of Japanese society has traditionally encouraged a rather different performance of individuality than in the West. Our stereotype of Japanese people in the West is that they are all very conformist, but my experience of Japanese people in Japan points to a much more varied picture. In public situations, Japanese people tend to refrain from drawing attention to themselves, but put them in a more intimate social setting, amongst a group of friends, family or workmates, and individuals' voices seem to really come to the fore—yet somehow within a sense of a strong group identity. So in a way, it is perhaps not so surprising that issues are coming up around the strong and public voicing of individual identity on blogs in Japan: this is relatively unchartered territory for Japanese culture.

topics: japan japanese>english blogs ethics