Why True Anonymity Is Important In Journalism

Meta Description: In a world that consumes media at a voracious rate, is now the time to consider
quality over quantity? Read on to find out why true anonymity means better journalism.

The name ‘The Doe’ wasn’t plucked out of thin air, and the creators weren’t trying to think up
something that sounded edgy to attract attention. The Doe as a name represents the very essence of
The Doe as a platform for voices. And that comes down to anonymity.

Every person who writes for The Doe does so as a John Doe, Jane Doe or however they identify, but
the point is that they will always remain completely anonymous. This is a deliberate attempt to fill a
gap in the media market. The space between curated, consumer-driven articles with an intended
purpose. The Doe has been created to disrupt the way we engage with news, and anonymity is a
massive part of that.

The Freedom To Write

Being able to write anonymously gives people the freedom to write what they want. If you have ever
tried writing something that you know will be published, or you are going to try to get published, you
will understand how the end goal impacts your writing. If your name is going to be put to a piece of
work, you will usually want to portray yourself in a way that is consistent with the image you want in
the public domain.

You may also have pressure to write in a particular way, or for a particular audience, and this will
influence your writing style, what you choose to write about or what angle your articles will take. For
some people, there can also be devastating consequences of sharing their own story, and without
anonymity, we would never get to hear these voices.

Even if you aren’t a writer, you can understand this feeling by thinking about when you’ve posted on
social media. No doubt you thought about how your post would be received and judged by the
people who will see it. Maybe you changed the way you phrased it, or decided to take parts out or
add bits in. The fact that it would be in the public domain and associated with your name is likely to
have impacted on how and what you chose to say.

The Doe takes away all of that pressure and allows writers to create narratives that can be deeply
personal, controversial or even dangerous to be associated with. The freedom to write what they
want without fear of repercussions makes The Doe a platform for marginalised voices that have
important narratives to share.

Anonymity doesn’t mean that anyone can log on and write whatever they want though. The Doe
team work hard to verify that any writer is legitimate, and the owner of the narrative they are
pitching to write. The team will also review pitches and work with writers to ensure the content is
appropriate for the site, without affecting the content. All narratives are unfiltered, personal
accounts.

Unconscious Bias is Rife!

Anonymity isn’t just about the writer though. As readers, we can all benefit from anonymous
writing. Even the most open-minded, liberal, non-judgemental person has a bias. It’s part of the
human condition, and something that we should try to recognise instead of denying. However, even
when we work hard on understanding our bias or our own prejudices, we struggle to get to grips
with unconscious bias. The split-second judgments that we don’t even realise we have made.
It has become popular for people to display a small thumbnail photo of themselves next to their
name near the top of their online article. This is great for people to get noticed, but plays directly
into the hands of the part of our brain that controls our unconscious bias. As soon as we see a
person, we make a snap judgement about them. Within milliseconds we will have assessed whether
we believe this is a person who is similar to us, and who we think we will agree with, or whether this
is a person who is nothing like us, and we are likely to disagree with. And it isn’t just with photos; we
make these snap judgements based on people’s names, so even if you choose to remove the photo,
you don’t remove the unconscious bias.

We can’t get away from the fact that it is natural and unintended, but this doesn’t mean we can’t
mitigate against it. Having anonymous voices takes away a large part of the unconscious bias that
can affect our decision making. We can’t decide, before starting to read, whether we believe we will
agree or disagree with what is written, and so we start our reading journey with a more open mind.

Not only that, but when we realise that what is being written is not something we agree with or not
something that sits comfortably with us, we can’t dismiss it as easily. This is because we can’t use
our unconscious bias to say ‘that person thinks that because they are totally different from me’. We
need to look inside ourselves, and search for why we react to what we are reading. This is how The
Doe creates thought-provoking debates about controversial and sensitive topics that can’t be
dismissed easily. Anonymous writing makes us look deeper into issues, and ourselves, so that the
world can progress and improve.

Who The Doe Is Not Designed For

The concept of The Doe means that everyone is welcomed, embraced and encouraged to get
involved. However, this doesn’t mean that everyone will want to join in. For many writers, the credit
of a by-line or a viral article is something to work towards. Many writers want to build a fanbase to
allow their writing to reach as many people as possible, and some people want to become famous.
None of these reasons are bad reasons to write, but these are not the types of writers that The Doe
is designed for.

There will be no credit, no by-line and no fan bases from writing for The Doe. Instead, there will be
uncensored, unfiltered, personal narratives where the writer has the freedom to express themselves
without worrying about whether it will increase their popularity, whether it fits in with the image
they wish to project, or whether there will be any consequences from sharing their story. So, if you
want access to real freedom of speech, then The Doe is definitely worth a read!