‘I am the heart and soul of this organization, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organizer, financier and all the rest. If you have a problem with me, piss off’
(Julian Assange, 2010, as cited in Poulsen & Zetter, 2010)
Introduction
In his article, The Mediatisation of Society Theory, Hjarvard (2008) deduces that media simultaneously become an integrated part of society, not to mention the existence of new media like the Internet. In fact, this integration of Internet into our daily life has made us live in the digital age where information is shared in real time and in global context. Castells (2007) even argues that in this digital age, people are able to expand their local communication activities to
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377). Moreover, Assange’s determination to “help whistleblowers that would expose wrongdoings of government and private enterprises” (Gunnell, 2011, p. 32 ) is believed has transformed the ideas of global communication process.
Related to that, this essay is written as an effort to comprehend the role of individual in globalized world, especially by studying the case of Julian Assange and Wikileaks. This essay is divided in three parts. The first part of this essay explains background as well as global controversy surrounding Wikileaks and its spokesman, Julian Assange. The second part identifies the areas that Assange have directly impacted, especially in terms of participation, journalism practice and privacy. Finally, the last part of this essay reflects on Assange’s role in the globalized media economy, particularly drawing on his background as an Australian as well as the position of Australia in global economy.
The Curios Case of Wikileaks and Julian Assange
Claimed by its founder to be a non-profit organization/website, Wikileaks was firstly launched in 2006. Some call it an open government group that enables public witnessing (Nayar, 2011; Rosewall & Warren, 2010), while others see it as a representation of a new type of “sovereignty in the global political and economy sphere” (Bodó, 2011, p. 3). The website uses the term “wiki” which was followed after Wikipedia due to its anonymous contributors and
Bradley Manning had access to confidential files and record as an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq. In the year 2010, Manning revealed confidential information to the website called WikiLeaks. The material contained various sensitive information such as videos of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables; and 500,000 Army reports that came to be known as the Iraq War logs and Afghan War logs. The majority of this information was published by the website WikiLeaks or the like. Bradley Manning’s case was somewhat complex because he didn’t initially express his reasoning for doing this and he appeared to have indiscriminately released numerous amounts of government records. Manning’s defense lawyer claimed that WikiLeaks is a valid media outlet, while the opposition claims that Manning was not a whistleblower leaking to a news outlet, but just a fame-seeker who released the information indiscriminately for his own purposes. ("What Bradley Manning Leaked.") Whether WikiLeaks is a valid reporting and journalistic media outlet or not, the case unfolded as the United States’ government began to scrutinize all media and information disclosures to the public.
Edward Snowden exposed NSA’s illegal surveillance in June 2013, this brought about controversial discussions inside America and all around the world. However, we stay oblivious how this thirty-year-old school dropout advanced to become one of the world's most noticeable critics of the government. Snowden is considered a hero and a patriot of the country, human rights movements like ACLU and Amnesty International advocate that Edward Snowden did great deeds to champion for the privacy rights of the citizens. (Greenwald, 2014) On the contrary, some people and the US intelligence consider Snowden a traitor to the state, the way he exposed the NSA was dubious and brought great risk to the international relationship between the US and other countries. Moreover, the state government accused him of breaching of information of the state.
A medium of the most general nature is the title of chapter five, this chapter reflects how the modern medium now embedded into society and difficult to notice. Net differs is a section in this chapter how social networks functions in more the one way. Social media is bidirectional considering it has to jobs allow people to people interactive with one another online as well as other communication since messages can be sent back and forth. Society is “interactivity of the
Julian Assange has been called many names; traitor, anarchist and even a high-tech terrorist, but the proper name for him is hero. WikiLeaks is an organization that truly works for the people. Keeping people informed with the inner workings of government, putting pressure on the press to acknowledge the truth and forcing change within government. WikiLeaks is driving journalism into the future and Assange is the driver.
Edward Snowden. This is a name that will be in the history books for ages. He will be branded a traitor or a whistleblower depending on where you look. Many Americans feel that Edward Snowden is a traitor who sold the United States’ secrets aiming to harm the nation. Others believe that he was simply a citizen of the United States who exercised his right to expose the government for their unconstitutional actions. It is important to not only know the two sides to the argument of friend or foe, but to also know the facts as well. My goal in this paper is to present the facts without bias and to adequately portray the two sides of the argument.
It is not surprising that the person responsible for the largest leak of classified intelligence in the history of the United States would be a very controversial figure. This essay will explore the life of Chelsea Manning, the classified material that was made public as a result of her leaks, and her eventual arrest and imprisonment. Upon close analysis, it can be shown that while Manning leaked classified material in an improper manner, the American people have a
Described as a terrifying and eye-opening thriller, Citizenfour, a documentary directed by Laura Poitras, follows the case of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who revealed the truth behind the National Security Agency surveillance programs in the United States. Throughout the movie, we first-handedly experience the obstacles Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for The Guardian, need to overcome, in order to share Snowden’s story and help him spread the information he leaked. Along those lines, the documentary begins with several encrypted emails received by Poitras from an anonymous sender nicknamed “Citizenfour” who later turns out to be Snowden. A few months later, Poitras and Greenwald partner up and meet Snowden in Hong Kong, where
Founded in 2006 by Australian journalist Julian Assange, the website WikiLeaks had quickly risen in infamy over the past few years (Majerol 19). The controversial website had posted hundreds of thousands of classified documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan war, revealing government cover-ups, a secret assassination unit and the killing of civilians among many things. The release of these confidential documents has produced two opposing views on whether or not WikiLeaks is a good thing (Pilger 18).
The Internet is one of the most widespread ways to exchange data, and a website called WikiLeaks has received a great amount of attention from the knowledge it releases. The details they give are known to be confidential and provide society with an inside view on what is really happening behind of the closed doors of the federal government. The site is based on the “belief that a more transparent government will bring better consequences for all, and that leaking information has an inherent tendency toward greater justice” (Singer 465). WikiLeaks gives its readers a way to honestly know all the significant facts and records that are purposefully kept away from
Similarly Glenn Greenwald’s feature article (2013), of Edward Snowden in ‘Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSW surveillance revelations’, reveals
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the
In early 2013 a man by the name of Edward Joseph Snowden began leaking classified National Security Agency (NSA) documents to media outlets, which in turn ended up in public ears. These documents, mainly involving intelligence Snowden acquired while working as an NSA contractor, are mostly related to global surveillance programs run by the NSA. This has raised multiple ethical issues ranging from national security, information privacy and the ethics behind whistleblowing in general. The reach and impact of these leaks have gone global and have put in question the very government that protects us as well as the extent of the public’s rights on privacy. Various foreign
“You can't have 100% security and then also have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience. Society had to make choices” said President Obama. It has become a given in society that it is on the government’s agenda to procure its nation’s safety in exchange of the privacy or freedom of the people. Edward Snowden, a paladin of social justice, has now come to light with outstanding facts as for what specifically it is that the National Security Agency (NSA) is able and willing to do for the country’s sake. Snowden, a 29-year-old NSA ex-employee, worked from Hawaii on his computer support for the recollection of data in bulk from the whole nation . Under the name of Verax, which means truth teller in Latin, he
First of all what was the content of the documents Wikileaks released and why is it such a big deal? Wikileaks has leaked a lot of things ranging from Military information to private emails of government officials. Now it’s pretty obvious that this could hurt the government 's sense of security, but what’s so wrong in the people of America knowing these things? It’s understandable why the government feels attacked it’s enemies, America 's enemies could get there hands on some Military information. But why does all this really matter and who really cares about some website and it’s drama? Some see Mr. Assange as a vigilante doing the things no one else
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has said he will turn himself over to UK police on Friday if a UN panel rules he has not been unlawfully detained.