DOCSLIB.ORG

Twitter and the Journalistic Field: How the Growth of a New(S)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Twitter and the Journalistic Field: How the Growth of a New(S) TWITTER AND THE JOURNALISTIC FIELD: HOW THE GROWTH OF A NEW(S) MEDIUM IS TRANSFORMING JOURNALISM A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School At the University of Missouri In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By STEPHEN R. BARNARD Dr. Victoria Johnson, Dissertation Supervisor JULY 2012 © Copyright by Stephen R. Barnard 2012 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled TWITTER AND THE JOURNALISTIC FIELD: HOW THE GROWTH OF A NEW(S) MEDIUM IS TRANSFORMING JOURNALISM Presented by Stephen R. Barnard A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy And hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Victoria Johnson Professor Clarence Y.H. Lo Professor Wayne H. Brekhus Professor Charles N. Davis DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to all who have made it possible. First, this includes the countless journalists, Twitter users, and new media practitioners whose actions are transforming the journalistic field, and who inspired me to study the underlying social processes. This dissertation is also dedicated to my many family members who have, each in their own way, inspired me to seek greater meaning in this world, and who have provided me with endless love and support as I keep trying. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As a sociologist, I am keenly aware of the fact that no individual accomplishment—even one as isolating and personally challenging as producing a dissertation—is possible without the assistance of others. This dissertation is no exception, as so many kind hearts and bright minds have helped me throughout this journey. First and foremost, words can hardly describe my gratitude to Dr. Victoria Johnson for all she has done for me over the years. As my advisor and mentor for nearly a decade, Dr. Johnson has generously—indeed, tirelessly—given of her time and energy in guiding me through the many peaks and valleys on my journey of matriculation. This project would not be what it is if not for her guidance. She saw the potential in this project, and in me, long before I was able to clearly articulate its direction, let alone comprehend how I would successfully get it to the finish line. Dr. Johnson’s deep understanding of media, culture, and theory, as well as her mastery of qualitative sociology, contributed significantly to the shape and success of this project. Her meticulous editing and pointed suggestions—of which she offered numerous times, for every chapter—helped me polish this dissertation into its current state. Furthermore, the immense personal support Dr. Johnson has offered me over the years has also proven invaluable. Her knack for knowing when I needed a gentle, supportive advisor and when I needed a tough, zealous advisor helped get me through the most challenging of times. Her candor and dedication over the years has done me an invaluable service in improving every piece of my scholarship, and more importantly, my overall disposition as a scholar. ii I only hope that I can continue to grow into the kind of scholar that would make her proud. Dr. Charles Davis also played an integral role in the success of this project. As an accomplished journalist and scholar, Dr. Davis provided significant guidance on the particulars of the journalistic field as well as Twitter’s growing role in it. His suggestions for sources and methods guided me through key decisions throughout the research process. Furthermore, Dr. Davis’s ability to see patterns in the journalistic field and to share in my recognition of Twitter’s growing importance was also incredibly helpful in verifying many of my findings while also challenging me to better analyze and interpret them. I am forever grateful for his continued support. From the very beginning of my graduate career, Dr. Clarence Lo and Dr. Wayne Brekhus have been central figures in my sociological development. From Dr. Lo I learned much about social theory, media, and movements, and I continue to apply these lessons in this and other endeavors. Furthermore, his suggestions at key points throughout my dissertation work helped me make formative decisions about the scope of the project and the theory and methods I would employ in it. Dr. Brekhus taught me a great deal about the sociology of culture and deviance, which has also influenced my work in this and other projects in important—if somewhat less visible—ways. Dr. Brekhus helped me develop micro- and mezzo-level lenses which would prove integral to my approach in this study and others related to it. Furthermore, his work on identity and social marking shaped the way I view actors’ location within fields. Dr. Amit Prasad also contributed greatly to my understanding of sociological theory in general and Bourdieu’s iii field theory in particular. His advice on how to most effectively situate my work within the ongoing discussions in sociology and other disciplines was most useful. I remain forever appreciative for the role each of them has played in my matriculation. My participation at academic conferences also proved to be a formative experience for the direction of my work. Presenting an early draft of my dissertation proposal at the 2011 Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) annual meeting allowed me to get a handle on the enormity of the Twitter-journalism relationship and get comfortable exploring and explaining it. I thank the fellow participants and attendees of the Sociology of Media session for their encouragement and suggestions. Additionally, my participation in the 2011 American Sociological Society (ASA) annual meeting provided me a space to further sharpen my focus and argument as well as my theoretical and methodological foundations. Dr. Rodney Benson accepted a related paper for presentation in the Media Sociology II session and provided valuable advice on multiple occasions. As the leading scholar on the journalistic field, Dr. Benson’s feedback helped me more intricately consider the theoretical and methodological particulars of field theory, which surely transferred to my work on this project. I must also thank Dr. Timothy Dowd and the other participants in the session for the useful feedback they provided. Additionally, my attendance allowed me to participate in many of the events of the Communication and Information Technologies Section of the ASA (CITASA). These experiences had quite an impact on my methodological approach as well as on my broader understanding of the growing impact of new media technologies. I am especially thankful to Dr. Christina Nippert-Eng, Dr. Harvey Molotch, Dr. Zeynep iv Tufekci, Jen Schradie, and other members of the CITASA section for the wonderful and supportive advice they offered. Accordingly, I must thank the Graduate School, the Department of Sociology, the Graduate Student Association, and the Graduate Professional Council—all at the University of Missouri—for funding this trip. Many of my friends and colleagues were also instrumental in helping me stay sane through the challenging times of dissertation writing. Most notably, Dr. Sam Claster, David Criger and Jesse Van Gerven each played the invaluable role of comrade and acted as a sounding board for some of my ideas throughout the project. As an accomplished scholar of media in his own right, Sam offered useful commentary on my case of study as well as feedback on a related paper. His first-hand advice about surviving the dissertation process frequently turned out to be “just what the doctor ordered.” The same can be said for David and Jesse, with whom I have shared so much since we entered graduate school together in 2005. Whether at the office, around a table, on the disc golf course, or elsewhere, they frequently provided me with intelligent advice and companionship. I thank each of them for their friendship and look forward to what academia—and life, more broadly—has in store for each of us. Now, to my family, who has done so much to help make this dissertation possible. I was fortunate to be raised by loving parents who wanted no more than for me to be happy, to keep chasing my dreams and trying my best, to lead an active and fulfilled life. From my mother, I learned a lifetime’s worth of wisdom about kindness, integrity, and respect. Perhaps more importantly, she taught me to care—even stick up—for those less fortunate than myself. This is a characteristic which I have taken rather seriously and v which apply constantly in my work. She has modeled these values all my life, and her example has served as a primary source of inspiration for me over the years. If not for her love and support, I would never have thought to care so much for anything, let alone had the mind or muster to dedicate my life’s work to helping understand and improve it. From my father, I gained a wealth of knowledge and experience about analytical thinking and problem solving. His amazing ability to combine logic, knowledge, and skill to fix practically anything has provided me a living example of excellence and has inspired me to search for ways my own talents might be applied. The mantra which he quoted to me countless times throughout my youth—“Improvise, Adapt, Overcome”— helped me learn self-reliance, ingenuity, and determination as I tried to solve even the most minute of problems. I had little idea at the time how effectively this and other skills my father taught me would lend themselves to my professional successes. Furthermore, his standing offer to help me with any of life’s challenges as this project neared completion proved to be an indispensible resource, which I tried to use only sparingly.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • ISOJ 2018: Day 2, Morning Keynote Speaker KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Ben Smith
    ISOJ 2018: Day 2, Morning Keynote Speaker KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Ben Smith Chair: Evan Smith, CEO and Co-Founder, Texas Tribune Keynote Speaker: Ben Smith, Editor-in-Chief, BuzzFeed Ben Smith: Thank you. Thank you for the kind words, Evan. Thanks so much for having me. The downside to not having a PowerPoint presentation is I’m going to stand under this giant picture of myself for five or ten minutes before Evan turns on me. And you know, we’ve talked a little about…. I think I’m just sort of giving a brief intro to how BuzzFeed went from being the world’s leading cat website to doing some journalism that I hope speaks for itself. And I think we are—we remain the world’s leading cat website as well. But we don’t—we don’t shy away from that, but I think that, at this point, the journalism really does speak for itself. And you can read that or watch that story elsewhere. And in particular, we’ve been on a run lately that I feel really good about. If I can boast a little, we broke the “Growth at Any Cost” Facebook memo the other week, and Christopher Steele’s other report on an alleged murder in Washington. And the third big story that we broke just in the last couple of weeks was the one that I thought, for this audience who pays a lot of attention to journalism and to how information travels online, would just be sort of interesting in talking about for a few minutes, because it’s something that I’ve been really troubled by and have been wrestling with over the last couple of weeks.
    [Show full text]
  • Publicity of the Intimate Text (The Blog Studying and Publication)
    Publicity of the intimate text (the blog studying and publication) One of the important problems of a modern society – communications. At all readiness of this question both humanitarian, and engineering science, process of transfer and information reception remains in the centre of attention of researchers. The dialogue phenomenon in a network becomes the significant factor of such attention. The possibility of the user choice, freedom of expression of feelings and requirements, communications and information interchange freedom – define principles of the Open Internet not only specificity of communications in networks, but also genre and stylistics possibilities of the texts providing dialogue. Today Internet users apply various possibilities of the network, one of the most demanded – a blog. The Internet as an open space of dialogue allows the texts created and functioning in a network, to pass and in fiction sphere. We can observe similar processes concerning a genre of a diary and its genre versions: Network diary (Internet diary) – a blog – and an art (literary) diary. The diary as an auto-documentation genre at the present stage of its development gets from especially intimate conditions on Internet space. The blog phenomenon reflects as potential of publicity of the text of the records, peculiar to a genre, and feature of a modern cultural situation. Popularity of Internet diaries defines interest to them and readers of a fiction with what cases of the publication of blogs, significant both in substantial, and in the art relation are connected. So, publications of the Russian bloggers are known: for example, the artist Peter Lovygin (lovigin.livejournal.com) [3], etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Download PDF (159.1
    ·9· CONCLUSION A Social News Media Network Conclusion Conclusion The first decades of the new millennium have seen further fundamental trans- formations of the practices and processes through which we generate and en- gage with the news, and online and social media have been central to these transformations to an extent that we could now speak of the thoroughly in- tegrated complex that includes conventional news organisations, alternative and citizen media outlets, professional and citizen journalists, industry and freelance newsmakers, dedicated social news curators and ordinary social me- dia users, as a social news media network. Social media have clearly been crucial drivers of these transformations. In the industry, “a ‘new’ dynamic of newsgathering, production and dissemi- nation is taking shape that affects journalistic practices” (Heinrich 2008: 3), while amongst news users “there is a growing demand for more open, accessi- ble and informative news media. People like journalism so much they are pre- pared to help create it themselves—for free” (Beckett 2010: 3). This has led to the central role that social media now play in the context of breaking news events, as we have seen in Chapter 3, and to the habitual, demotic everyday newssharing practices that are enabling social media to become an increas- ingly important source of news for a growing share of Internet users, which we examined in Chapter 4; it has also forced journalists to develop strategies Axel Bruns - 9781433133213 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 03:42:45PM via free access 350 GATEWATCHING AND NEWS CURATION for engaging more directly with their readers and viewers by developing their personal social media presences, as outlined in Chapter 5, to an extent that would have been unthinkable during the first wave of citizen media; and it has led the news industry as a whole to confront social media as a tertiary space beyond its own imprints in which user engagement with the news must be an- ticipated, should be addressed, and can be measured, as shown in Chapter 6.
    [Show full text]
  • Photojournalism Photojournalism
    Photojournalism For this section, we'll be looking at photojournalism's impact on shaping people's opinions of the news & world events. Photojournalism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that employs images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (e.g., documentary photography, social documentary photography, street photography or celebrity photography) by complying with a rigid ethical framework which demands that the work be both honest and impartial whilst telling the story in strictly journalistic terms. Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media, and help communities connect with one other. Photojournalists must be well informed and knowledgeable about events happening right outside their door. They deliver news in a creative format that is not only informative, but also entertaining. Timeliness The images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events. Objectivity The situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone. Narrative The images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to audiences. Like a writer, a photojournalist is a reporter, but he or she must often make decisions instantly and carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to significant obstacles (e.g., physical danger, weather, crowds, physical access).
    [Show full text]
  • How to Fund Investigative Journalism Insights from the Field and Its Key Donors Imprint
    EDITION DW AKADEMIE | 2019 How to fund investigative journalism Insights from the field and its key donors Imprint PUBLISHER RESPONSIBLE PUBLISHED Deutsche Welle Jan Lublinski September 2019 53110 Bonn Carsten von Nahmen Germany © DW Akademie EDITORS AUTHOR Petra Aldenrath Sameer Padania Nadine Jurrat How to fund investigative journalism Insights from the field and its key donors Sameer Padania ABOUT THE REPORT About the report This report is designed to give funders a succinct and accessible introduction to the practice of funding investigative journalism around the world, via major contemporary debates, trends and challenges in the field. It is part of a series from DW Akademie looking at practices, challenges and futures of investigative journalism (IJ) around the world. The paper is intended as a stepping stone, or a springboard, for those who know little about investigative journalism, but who would like to know more. It is not a defense, a mapping or a history of the field, either globally or regionally; nor is it a description of or guide to how to conduct investigations or an examination of investigative techniques. These are widely available in other areas and (to some extent) in other languages already. Rooted in 17 in-depth expert interviews and wide-ranging desk research, this report sets out big-picture challenges and oppor- tunities facing the IJ field both in general, and in specific regions of the world. It provides donors with an overview of the main ways this often precarious field is financed in newsrooms and units large and small. Finally it provides high-level practical ad- vice — from experienced donors and the IJ field — to help new, prospective or curious donors to the field to find out how to get started, and what is important to do, and not to do.
    [Show full text]
  • A Decade of the Knight News Challenge: Investing in Innovators to Advance News, Media, and Information
    A DECADE OF THE KNIGHT NEWS CHALLENGE: INVESTING IN INNOVATORS TO ADVANCE NEWS, MEDIA, AND INFORMATION PRESENTED TO November 2017 1 / 31 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION AND MAJOR FINDINGS 3 OVERVIEW OF KNIGHT NEWS CHALLENGE WINNERS 6 KNIGHT NEWS CHALLENGE IMPACT ON WINNERS 16 FIELD IMPACT 21 CONCLUSION 26 APPENDIX A 28 SELECTED WINNER CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FIELD APPENDIX B 30 METHODOLOGY INTRODUCTION AND MAJOR FINDINGS Over the last two decades, technology has transformed the way consumers interact with news and media, including how they create, consume, and share information. These advances have challenged traditional media organizations to adapt the way they deliver content to stay relevant to readers, fulfill their missions, and sustain their work. In 2006, the Knight Foundation launched the Knight News Challenge (KNC) to invest in new ideas and individuals to support innovation in news and information. Since its launch, the KNC has provided more than $48 million to fund 139 projects in the United States and around the world. 3 / 31 To better understand how the Challenge impacted winners1 , their projects, and the broader fields of news, media, and journalism, Arabella Advisors conducted a retrospective evaluation of the last 10 years of the KNC (2006– 2016)2. Through this research, we identified ways the Challenge has impacted the field and its winners, including: Enabling and Advancing Innovators in Journalism and the Media The KNC helped to support a group of individuals and organizations working at the nexus of technology and journalism and, in large part, has kept those individuals within the media field. Of all winners, 84 percent remain in the fields of journalism, technology and, media.
    [Show full text]
  • Neil Postman
    Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change by Neil Postman Talk delivered in Denver Colorado March 28, 1998 … I doubt that the 21st century will pose for us problems that are more stunning, disorienting or complex than those we faced in this century, or the 19th, 18th, 17th, or for that matter, many of the centuries before that. But for those who are excessively nervous about the new millennium, I can provide, right at the start, some good advice about how to confront it. …. Here is what Henry David Thoreau told us: “All our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end.” Here is what Goethe told us: “One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words.” Socrates told us: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Rabbi Hillel told us: “What is hateful to thee, do not do to another.” And here is the prophet Micah: “What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.” And I could say, if we had the time, (although you know it well enough) what Jesus, Isaiah, Mohammad, Spinoza, and Shakespeare told us. It is all the same: There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and it is a delusion to believe that the technological changes of our era have rendered irrelevant the wisdom of the ages and the sages. Nonetheless, having said this, I know perfectly well that because we do live in a technological age, we have some special problems that Jesus, Hillel, Socrates, and Micah did not and could not speak of.
    [Show full text]
  • February 26, 2020 Chairman David Skaggs Co-Chairwoman Allison
    February 26, 2020 Chairman David Skaggs Co-Chairwoman Allison Hayward Office of Congressional Ethics 425 3rd Street, SW Suite 1110 Washington, DC 20024 Dear Chairman Skaggs and Co-Chairwoman Hayward: We write to request that the Office of Congressional Ethics (“OCE”) investigate whether Representative Devin Nunes is receiving free legal services in violation of the Rules of the House of Representatives (“House rules”). Specifically, Representative Nunes retained an attorney who represents him in several defamation lawsuits in various courts where he seeks a total of nearly $1 billion in damages. House rules prohibit a Member from receiving free legal services, unless the Member establishes a Legal Expense Fund (“LEF”). According to the House Legislative Resource Center, Representative Nunes has not filed any of the required reports to establish an LEF. The relevant facts detailed below establish that the OCE Board should authorize an investigation of Representative Nunes. Representative Nunes’s overt involvement with the highly-publicized lawsuits threatens to establish a precedent that the Legal Expense Fund (“LEF”) regulations no longer apply to Members. Although Representative Nunes is entitled to legal representation and he may pursue any legal action to protect and defend his interests, he must comply with House rules. An OCE investigation will preserve Representative Nunes’s legal right to counsel while upholding well-established House rules and precedent. House Rules Prohibit Members from Receiving Discounted or Free Legal Services A Member of the House of Representatives “may not knowingly accept a gift” with limited exceptions.1 A “gift” is defined to include “a gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance, or other item having monetary value.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Review: Amazing Ourselves to Death - Neil Postman’S Brave New World Revisited Lance E
    L. E. Mason / Journal of Media Literacy Education 7 (1), 80 - 82 Available online at www.jmle.org The National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Journal of Media Literacy Education 7(1), 80 - 82 Book Review: Amazing Ourselves to Death - Neil Postman’s Brave New World Revisited Lance E. Mason Department of Education, Indiana University Amazing Ourselves to Death: Neil Postman’s Brave New World Revisited by Lance Strate. 2014. New York: Peter Lang. Media scholar Neil Postman wrote approximately 25 books during his career, the most influential of which was titled Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. In his book, Postman (1985) claims that the epistemology of television, which had become the dominant media form by the 1980s, had eroded the substance and coherence of public discourse, which increasingly took the form of entertainment. More recently, the media environment has undergone further dramatic changes with the emergence of the Internet, Web 2.0, and social media. Postman died in 2003, and while he continued to publish until shortly before his death, he never updated his most popular work to account for these changes. Postman’s former student, media ecologist Lance Strate, now takes up this task. His new book examines Postman’s positions in light of the contemporary media landscape. His goals are twofold: first, to summarize Postman’s positions and demonstrate their continued relevance; second, to present Postman’s approach to media analysis, which is grounded in the field that Postman originated, media ecology. As such, Strate adheres closely to Postman’s original ideas and carefully explicates them throughout each chapter.
    [Show full text]
  • | Oxford Literary Festival
    OXFORD literary Saturday 30 March to festival Sunday 7 April 2019 Kazuo Ishiguro Nobel Prize Winner Dr Mary Robinson Robert Harris Darcey Bussell Mary Beard Ranulph Fiennes Lucy Worsley Ben Okri Michael Morpurgo Jo Brand Ma Jian Joanne Harris Venki Ramakrishnan Val McDermid Simon Schama Nobel Prize Winner pocket guide Box Office 0333 666 3366 • www.oxfordliteraryfestival.org Welcome to your pocket guide to the 2019 Ft Weekend oxFord literary Festival Tickets Tickets can be booked up to one hour before the event. Online: www.oxfordliteraryfestival.org In person: Oxford Visitor Information Centre, Broad Street, Oxford, seven days a week.* Telephone box office: 0333 666 3366* Festival box office: The box office in the Blackwell’s marquee will be open during the festival. Immediately before events: Last-minute tickets are available for purchase from the festival box office in the marquee in the hour leading up to each event. You are strongly advised to book in advance as the box office can get busy in the period before events. * An agents’ booking fee of £1.75 will be added to all sales at the visitor information centre and through the telephone box office. This pocket guide was correct at the time of going to press. Venues are sometimes subject to change, and more events will be added to the programme. For all the latest times and venues, check our website at www.oxfordliteraryfestival.org General enquiries: 07444 318986 Email: [email protected] Ticket enquiries: [email protected] colour denotes children’s and young people’s events Blackwell’s bookshop marquee The festival marquee is located next to the Sheldonian Theatre.
    [Show full text]
  • FORD-THESIS-2013.Pdf (2.359Mb)
    Copyright by Kasey Crystal Ford 2013 The Thesis Committee for Kasey Crystal Ford Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Emergent Social Network Communities: Hashtags, Knowledge Building, and Communities of Practice APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Paul Resta George Veletsianos Emergent Social Network Communities: Hashtags, Knowledge Building, and Communities of Practice by Kasey Crystal Ford, B. A. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2013 Dedication For Blake—I’m the luckiest. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Paul Resta, for all of his helpful insights, thoughtful guidance, and Skype conversations. My research topic is thanks in no small part to Dr. George Veletsianos, whose work and suggestions inspired me. This project would not have been completed without them. This journey also made possible by my colleagues, supervisors, peers, and friends who supported me and informed my work. I am pleased to know such talented and passionate people. Of course, I would like to thank my family. To my parents, siblings, and in-laws for sending encouragement. My daughter, Molly Sunshine, was born midway through this process and instilled in me why this work is important. Most of my gratitude goes to my husband, Blake, for running a household by himself, letting me sleep when I was tired, feeding me when I was hungry, and most importantly discussing everything from technology to philosophy on car trips, while folding clothes, and in the middle of the night.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Wikileaks Challenging the Paradigm of Journalism? Boundary Work and Beyond
    International Journal of Communication 8 (2014), Feature 2581–2592 1932–8036/2014FEA0002 Is WikiLeaks Challenging the Paradigm of Journalism? Boundary Work and Beyond KARIN WAHL-JORGENSEN Cardiff University, Wales Introduction WikiLeaks exists in a peculiar and illustrative tension with journalism that dramatizes larger unfolding debates about the authority, status, and future of journalism. This article explores what the WikiLeaks saga can tell us, in a broader sense, about pressing anxieties of the journalism profession and, relatedly, the discipline of journalism studies. The article explores how journalists and journalism scholars have discussed the revelations of WikiLeaks as well as the organization itself. I suggest that, whereas some observers have argued that WikiLeaks heralds a radical transformation in understandings of journalism, others are keen to see it as just another source—a phenomenon easily subsumed under existing definitions of journalism and deployed in its service. The article investigates the ways in which WikiLeaks challenges conventional paradigms of news coverage insofar as it provides—and publishes—the investigative materials that journalists themselves usually take pride in uncovering. Through this activity, the organization’s emergence reflects larger developments representing a shake-up in conventional hierarchies of voice and access to the public sphere. At the same time, WikiLeaks has also served as a novel and unique type of news source, and the ambiguous figure of Julian Assange has been variously appropriated in news narratives as a heroic defender of free expression—described as a courageous whistleblower willing to speak truth to power on the one hand, and an autistic renegade, recluse, and alleged rapist on the other (e.g., Rusbridger, 2011, p.
    [Show full text]