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During our discussion on Friday, the issue of the ethics of claiming authorship or being pseudonymous (blogging with a pseudonym) was raised. Motivation of the author, context of the blog, and awareness of the audience are all relevant factors.
Karen Mishra argued that academics should not blog using a pseudonym, but should instead claim their identity. She suggested that this was a more ethical choice, and also a more practical one, since bloggers have demonstrated their capability to unearth the true identity of bloggers with pseudonyms
I pointed out that in the blogging community, there is a norm regarding other authors who write under pseudonyms — don’t out them, even if you can identify the author by name.
Furthermore, I argued that there are good reasons to blog under a pseudonym, even as an academic. You may be a doctoral student, or a dean, or a member of the Academy who blogs about the difficulties facing underrepresented groups within the Academy, for example.
We must each choose our own ethical approach.
