タイム誌の記事『Person of the Year の全て』で目にした「criterion」の意味とは？

ちょっと前に、TIME 誌恒例の『Person of the Year』について取り上げましたが、TIME 誌の記事に『Everything You Wanted to Know About TIME’s Person of the Year（”Person of the Year” の全て）』という記事が載っていたので、読んでみました。

Everything You Wanted to Know About TIME’s Person of the Year | TIME（2012年12月）

すると、

The criterion is “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.”

と書いてありました。

ポイント

criterion〔発音〕は「基準」という意味合いで、日常生活でよく見聞きします。

criterion | Dictionary.com

criterion: a standard of judgment or criticism; a rule or principle for evaluating or testing something.

（複数形の “criteria〔発音〕” もよく使われています！）

インタビューに答えているのは、TIME 誌のラディカ・ジョーンズ（executive editor）編集長（executive editor）。「『良い意味でも悪い意味でも私たちの生活やニュースに影響を与えていて、その年において重要な意味をもつ人』というのが基準です」と言ってはったのでした。

補足

以下、インタビュー内容を詳しく見てみたいと思います。

きっかけ

Charles Lindbergh
1927年の暮れ、その年の5月に初の大西洋単独無着陸飛行に成功した飛行士のチャールズ・リンドバーグを表紙に載せていなかったことに気づき、急遽『Man of the Year』として表紙に使うことにしたのが始まりだったそう。

How long has Person of the Year been around?

It has a great origin story—or maybe more of a legend. At the end of 1927, the editors of TIME looked at the year’s covers and realized they had somehow failed to put Charles Lindbergh on the cover. He’d done his historic flight in May, but no cover. They decided they could get away with putting him on the cover months later by calling him “Man of the Year.”

選定基準

1933 Time Man of the Year cover

（1933年の “Man of the Year”）

その年のニュースを代表する人であると同時に、記録として後世に残す価値がある人、というのが重要だそうです。先ほどもあったように、その年において重要な意味をもつ人であれば、悪人とされる人も選考対象になります。過去にはヒトラー（1938）やスターリン（1939 & 1942）も選ばれていました。

また、『Person of the Year』ではありますが、必ずしも人が選ばれるとは限りません。1982年度は『Machine of the Year』と称してコンピュータが選ばれています。

これまで亡くなった人が選ばれたことはないそうですが、生きている人でなければならないという決まりは特にないようです。

The challenge is that on one hand, we’re trying to make a decision about who best represents the news of the year. But the pick also needs to have archival value.

So ideally, we want our Person of the Year to be both a snapshot of where the world is and a picture of where it’s going.

Tell me about the ‘for better or worse’ caveat that’s often attached to Person of the Year.

The criterion is “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.”

Famously, they named Hitler in 1938 and Stalin in 1939 and again in 1942.

Earth isn’t a person and neither is the personal computer. What’s the deal with these inanimate objects?

What I hear anecdotally is that readers are most satisfied when the Person of the Year is a person. Sometimes it’s been a thing; sometimes it’s been a collective. Last year it was The Protester, a sort of representative figure.

I think the personal computer really stands up. Although Steve Jobs was profiled for that issue, and you could argue the editors might have been more forward-looking had they named Steve Jobs for that year, 1982.

Has the Person of the Year ever been someone who is deceased?

No. But nowhere is it written that it couldn’t be.

選考過程

選考過程はかなり極秘のようで、TIME 誌の人間でも、選考に関わる一部の人間しか知らないようです。

How secretive is the process of putting together the issue?

Very few people on the staff know who the front-runner is, or even the short list. Really only the people for whom it’s necessary to know, know — including a small circle of editors and the writer working on the story. Layout meetings are held in secret. This is my third year editing it and I’ve developed a good poker face.

発表

発表は12/19の朝（米国時間）。MSNBC 放送の Today や Twitter（@TIME）で発表され、TIME.com および誌面で確認できるようになります。

Is it true that the announcement is made before the cover goes to the printers?

Yes, this year the announcement will be made on the Today show and to TIME’s four million Twitter followers on the morning of Dec. 19, as the issue goes to press. It goes live on TIME.com immediately, and our plan is for readers to be able to download the tablet edition on the 19th as well.

原文には「なぜスティーブ・ジョブズは選ばれたことがないのか？」など興味深い小話も含まれていたので、興味があったらぜひ原文も読んでみてください 🙂