Justin Bieber’s Historic Mistake

In today’s society, social media is something everyone has and uses. It is a way for people to connect with others, share memories, or keep up with what’s relevant and within the world. Although having social media at our fingertips is useful, it is extremely easy to slip up and post the wrong picture, say the wrong thing, or not being aware that whatever you are posting may be offensive towards others. In the case of Justin Bieber, he was not aware of the history behind a photo he posted on Instagram from his trip to Japan.

In 2014, Justin Bieber posted a picture of him outside the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan with the caption, “Thank you for your blessings” (Kim, 2015). What Bieber thought was a place of worship was more than just that. Yasukuni is a shrine dedicated to the 2.5 million men, women, and children who died while serving the Japanese Empire from 1868 to 1945 (Taylor, 2014). Bieber later deleted the post of him in front of the controversial shrine and posted a follow-up post explaining that he had been misled to think that shrines were only a place of prayer (Taylor, 2014).

Using Bowen’s ethical guidelines (Bowen, 2013), I will relate each guideline to Justin Bieber’s social media slip-up. Bowen’s 15 ethical guidelines for using social media are the following:

1. Be fair and prudent: Bieber unintentionally hurt many Chinese fans when posting the photo on Instagram.
2. Avoid deception: Bieber was not deceiving anyone by taking a picture in front of Yasukuni.
3. Maintain dignity and respect: The photo’s caption disrespected many people since Bieber thought every shrine was a worship place.
4. Eschew Secrecy: This guideline does not apply to Bieber’s social media blunder.
5. Is it reversible?: Bieber did delete the initial Instagram post and posted a public apology, but from the time of the initial post to the time he deleted it, the news had already spread of his error.
6. Be transparent: Bieber’s Instagram post was not paid speech or affiliated with sponsorship or endorsement.
7. Clearly identify: This guideline does not apply to Bieber’s social media blunder.
8. Rational analysis: Since Bieber was not informed about Yasukuni’s history before posting the photo, he was completely unaware that many people would take offence towards his post.
9. Emphasize clarity: This does not apply to Bieber because the post was not for a sponsorship/endorsement.
10. Disclose transparency: This guideline does not apply to Bieber’s social media blunder.
11. Verify sources and data: This guideline does not apply to Bieber’s social media blunder.
12. Establish responsibility: Bieber should have educated himself on some historical places in Japan and their significance before choosing to post the photo to his Instagram.
13. Examine intentions: Although Bieber did not have any bad intentions when posting the photo, he was not aware or informed about the shrine’s history.
14. Encourage the good: This guideline does not apply to Bieber’s social media blunder because Bieber’s post did not help build connectedness, engagement, or community.
15. Consistency build trust: By Bieber being uninformed about Yasukuni and its history, many fans, especially his Chinese fans, would lose trust in him and may no longer want to support his music.

By using Bowen’s 15 ethical guidelines to assess Justin Bieber’s social media blunder, there were some guidelines that Bieber could have considered before posting the photo. Despite Bieber not having the intention of disrespecting and hurting people’s feelings, he was not aware that the location he took the picture was not a place of worship but was a historical shrine that symbolized death from war. Although this was embarrassing to Bieber’s career, it shows that even celebrities can make mistakes.

References

Bowen, S. (2013). Using classic social media cases to distill ethical guidelines for digital engagement. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 28(2), 119–133.

Kim, E. (2015, April 21). 11 of the worst social media blunders ever. https://www.businessinsider.com/11-celebrity-blunders-on-social-media-2015-4.

Taylor, A. (2014, April 23). How Justin Bieber inadvertently stepped into one of the world’s greatest geopolitical controversies. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/04/23/how-justin-bieber-inadvertently-stepped-into-one-of-the-worlds-greatest-geopolitical-controversies/.