Is Wikileaks the Future of Journalism?

Is WikiLeaks the future of journalism?
George Brock
Professor and Head of Journalism
City University London
XIC, Mumbai, March 2011
City University London www.city.ac.uk/journalism
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We can use ideas from Tuesday
Recap:
Verification
Sense-making
Eye-witness
Investigation
Can’t be done by algorithms
May even require training
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The three phases of Wikileaks
Phase one: hackers.
“brilliant, opinionated, a monocle and a Persian cat away from looking like a Bond villain.” (Clay Shirky)
Assange compared to characters from Batman to Bakunin to “Ned Kelly of the internet”
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Phase Two: stateless, uncrackable platform
Kenya, Julius Baer, Guantanamo handbooks, Scientology, Kosovo
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Phase Three, 2010: the big time
“Collateral Murder”
Afghan warlogs
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…and more
Iraq warlogs
US diplomatic cables
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And this week, in full, India…
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The effects
Julian Assange, superstar
Original team splits
New leaking platform starts
? Tunisia
Middle East
Wars continue
Effects not predictable
Arrest/trial of Bradley Manning
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Disappointment
Julian Assange
“I’m off to end a war”
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Daniel Domscheit-Berg
“If he’s succeded, it’s news to me... We had expected the documents to change peoples thinking about the war.... One problem was the sheer volume of the data”

Is it journalism?
Does it pass Brock’s tests? (verification,sense-making, eye-witness, investigation)
Does it change how governments hold information?
Does it change the information balance between citizen and government?
Does it matter whether or not it’s journalism?
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What the mainstream media did
Made sense of chaos
Minimised harm
Projected
Adapted to the data dump
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Are secrets right?
Julian Assange’s original view:
(Journalists’) “original sin” is to enjoy the imbalance of power. Why does someone want to read what a journalist has written? “They’re ignorant and you’re not. You know more.”
Journalists treat readers as parents treat children. “You can’t lie, but the opportunity to distort is large and prevalent”. The reader can’t see the whole picture so WikiLeaks has to fill the gap. Once “primary source material” is up on the web, the “lying opportunities” shrink.
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Privacy and transparency
People need privacy and are entitled to it
But how much?
Governments need secrecy
Likewise... How much should they be allowed?
Does anyone own information?
Democracy is a series of managed tensions
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“National security”: US version
The balance was asserted in the Pentagon papers case
by the late Justice Potter Stewartof the US supreme court. He was su
He was sure that the Pentagon papers` publication was
not in the national interest, he said, but he could not find that it would “surely result in direct, immediate and irreparable harm to our Nation or its people”.
Stewart’s tough test still governs the tense collaboration and competition between the American government and press
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Is it journalism?
Your view of its value will depend on you view of society
In an open society this will not be fixed
Events like WikiLeaks may change the balance of information power.
“Assange has claimed, when the history of statecraft of the era is written, that it will be divided into pre-and post-WikiLeaks periods. This claim is grandiose and premature; it is not, however, obviously wrong.”
A source and a platform
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WikiLeaks: unexpected effects
Nobody died
Great PR for the State Department
Opportunities for security firms
Big bonus for historians
No one expected an effect in the Middle East
New technologies and their disclosures don’t bring “general and perpetual peace on earth”(the president of GEC’s hope for radio in 1921)
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Further reading
On Delicious
Georgebrock51 (password: oliver85)
Books:
WikiLeaks: The Inside Story of Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy (Guardian Books)
Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange(Daniel Domscheit-Berg)
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www.georgebrock.net
@georgeprof
www.city.ac.uk/journalism
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Is Wikileaks the Future of Journalism?

by City University London on Mar 24, 2011

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Is Wikileaks the Future of Journalism? — Presentation Transcript