By Cleland Thom
People on our writing courses often ask if they can use a pseudonym.
It's a personal decision. Occasionally, people have to use them for security issues.
Personally, I don't like them. Would you trust a decorator who wouldn't give you his real name?
Writing
is a part of freedom of expression - a precious right that is easily
taken for granted. But it comes with responsibilities.
If we want people to read our work, we should allow them to know who wrote it. Otherwise, what's the point?
I
put my name to everything I write. And with a name like mine, there's
nowhere to hide. There's only one Cleland Thom in the world, and that's
me!
Students doing our online writing courses
know that I always blog under my real name. What's the point of
expressing an opinion anonymously? An opinion only has credibility and
context when people know who it belongs to.
I don't engage with bloggers who use nicknames. They're not worth responding to.
It's
even more important for journalists. It's part of a their role to stand
up and be counted for their work, after all, that's what they expect
from our contacts.
We can't argue that a free press is a key part of democracy if we're not prepared to put our names to the process.
See our blogging courses
No comments:
Post a Comment