WikiLeaks and the Changing Forms of Information Politics in the “Network Society”

2012 ◽  
pp. 167-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chindu Sreedharan ◽  
Einar Thorsen ◽  
Stuart Allan
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Network Society ◽  
Privileged Information ◽  
Investigative Journalism ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Information Politics ◽  
Relations Of Power

This chapter offers an analysis of one instance of “mass self-communication” namely the website WikiLeaks. Founded in 2006 by Australian internet activist Julian Paul Assange, WikiLeaks aimed to facilitate an anonymous electronic drop box for whistleblowers. WikiLeaks has promoted the cause of investigative journalism, organising citizens into a powerful force of news-gatherers, and laying bare a wealth of privileged information. By first disrupting and then decentralising relations of power, WikiLeaks encourages new ways of thinking. At the heart of this process is a radical recasting of what counts as a public service ethos, one which promises to reinvigorate traditional conceptions of journalism’s role and responsibilities in a democratic culture.

scholarly journals The Special Broadcasting Service after 30 Years: Public Service Media and New Ways of Thinking about Media and Citizenship

2009 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Flew
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Online News ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Current Affairs ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Broadcasting Service

This article considers the distinctive ways in which the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) has evolved over its history since 1980, and how it has managed competing claims to being a multicultural yet broad-appeal broadcaster, and a comprehensive yet low-cost media service. It draws attention to the challenges presented by a global rethinking of the nature of citizenship and its relationship to media, for which SBS is well placed as a leader, and the challenges of online media for traditional public service media models, where SBS has arguably been a laggard, particularly when compared with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It notes recent work that has been undertaken by the author with others into user-created content strategies at SBS and how its online news and current affairs services have been evolving in recent years.

The Game of Loyalt(o)y: Diversions and Divisions in Network Society

2003 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celia Lury
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Computer Game ◽  
Employee Training ◽  
Network Society ◽  
Relations Of Power

This paper maps the biography of a new media product as a way of exploring how a network society is emerging. While Castells identifies the importance of the spirit of informationalism, he leaves the ethics of this culture relatively under-developed. Focusing on the development of a computer game for employee training purposes, the paper argues that some of the characteristics of play – its holding or hooking power, its ability to break down the distinction between pretence and belief, and its role in the development of gaming skills – may be relevant here. It further suggests that play has the potential to contribute to divisions as well as to diversions, and in this way contribute to the dis-embedding and re-embedding of individuals, and to changes in relations of power and inequality.

Sports Coverage: “Toy Department” or Public-Service Journalism? The Relationship Between Reporters’ Ethics and Attitudes Toward the Profession

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Hardin ◽  
Bu Zhong ◽  
Erin Whiteside
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Telephone Survey ◽  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Ethical Standards ◽  
Investigative Journalism ◽  
Steroid Use ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Sports Coverage ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes

U.S. sports operations have been described as newsroom “toy departments,” at least partly because of their deviation from journalistic norms. Recently, however, more attention has focused on issues of ethics and professionalism; the failure of sports journalists to adequately cover steroid use in Major League Baseball has also directed critical attention to their roles and motives. This study, through a telephone survey of journalists in U.S. newsrooms, examines sports reporters’ practices, beliefs, and attitudes in regard to ethics and professionalism and how their ethics and practice relate. Results indicate that reporters’ attitudes toward issues such as voting in polls, taking free tickets, gambling, and becoming friends with sources are related to their views of public-service or investigative journalism. In addition, friendships with sources are linked to values stereotypically associated with sports as a toy-department occupation. These results suggest that adherence to ethical standards is linked to an outlook that embraces sports coverage as public service.

The Indeterminacy of Choice: Political, Policy and Organisational Implications

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Clarke ◽  
Nicholas Smith ◽  
Elizabeth Vidler
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Policy ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Organisational Dynamics

Choice has become a central – and much debated – theme of New Labour's approach to the reform of public service. In this article we examine the conditions and consequences of the indeterminacy of choice in political discourse, policy development and organisational dynamics. We suggest that the under-specification of choice in political and policy settings risks devolving the stresses of indeterminacy to service organisations and their interactions with the public. We explore some of the public's ambivalence about choice and public services and conclude by offering two ways of thinking about the indeterminacy of choice – treating choice as a condensate and as a proxy.

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