The Discursive Enactment of Edward Snowden By Alessandro R. Marcon A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies with a Specialization in Digital Humanities Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2015, Alessandro R. Marcon Abstract Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing on the National Security Agency (NSA) has resulted in widespread discursive battles on popular and social media. The purpose of this study was to theoretically and empirically explore how various participants discursively engaged the debate with digital media. It sought to identify and analyze the discursive forces at play, investigating how ‘storylines’ and ‘antagonisms’ are enacted, reinforced, and contested. Performing a type of ‘online ethnography’, the digital realms were analyzed on a macro-level before 22 articles were selected for in-depth analysis. Additionally, a corpus of nearly 40,000 YouTube comments was built then analyzed, and five interviews with Snowden were taken into consideration. Analysis reveals how and why the terms ‘hero’, ‘patriot’, ‘traitor’ and ‘villain’ come to be used for many whistleblowers, including Snowden. Furthermore, the study offers explanations for the roles that these ‘terms’ played when taken up and resisted by diverse participants. ii Acknowledgements To Mom, Dad, and Heidi, thanks for all the unwavering love and support. I love you. To my supervisors, Graham and Jaffer, thanks for guiding me towards the bastion of structure that these ideas needed to be housed in. Your patience, support and enthusiasm for this project have been invaluable. Additional thanks to all my professors at Carleton who contributed to this project directly or indirectly, in particular: Natasha Artemeva, Marc Furstenau, and Richard Darville. A big shout-out to all my friends and classmates especially: Anne, Plooch, Jordon, Sara Doody, Janna ‘bud’ PK, and Mike Ham. Your support and friendship, especially your patient and benevolent toleration of my rambling-maelstroms has been greatly appreciated. A special thanks goes out to Philip ‘der Zauberer’ Klostermann for collaborating in the construction of the corpus. This project is indebted to your creative and hard work. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. iv List of tables ........................................................................................................................ vi Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 7 Purpose of Study ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Impetus for Study ........................................................................................................................................... 7 Literature Review and Research Questions.................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2: Background information ................................................................................... 13 Background to the case of Edward Snowden ............................................................................................. 13 The Case of Daniel Ellsberg ...................................................................................................................... 13 The Case of Thomas Drake/ William Binney........................................................................................... 15 The Case of Chelsea Manning ................................................................................................................... 16 The Whistleblowing Case of Edward Snowden ....................................................................................... 17 Chapter 3: Theoretical Perspectives ................................................................................... 23 Whistleblowing ............................................................................................................................................. 23 Heroes, Villains, Traitors and Patriots as Socio-Discursive Constructs .................................................. 26 Whistleblowing in the American Context....................................................................................................38 Conceptions of Discourse.............................................................................................................................. 43 Chapter 4: Method .............................................................................................................. 55 Overview of Chapter ..................................................................................................................................... 55 Theoretical Underpinning of Methodological Practices ............................................................................ 55 Data Collection Procedures .......................................................................................................................... 59 Methods of Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 63 Chapter 5: Findings, Analysis and Discussion .................................................................... 65 Chapter Road Map ........................................................................................................................................ 65 Macro-level Findings: Mapping out the Discursive Spheres .................................................................... 66 The NSA leaks sphere ............................................................................................................................... 66 The Edward Snowden Sphere.................................................................................................................. 69 General Summary of the two spheres ...................................................................................................... 71 Findings and Analysis of the Spheres.......................................................................................................... 72 NSA leaks Sphere ...................................................................................................................................... 72 Analysis of the ‘Snowden effect’ storyline ................................................................................................ 75 iv Edward Snowden Sphere ......................................................................................................................... 76 Analysis of the ‘Hero-Traitor’ Popular Antagonism ................................................................................ 79 Data Findings and Analysis of the ‘hero bloc’ ......................................................................................... 80 Analysis of Arguments ..............................................................................................................................83 Additional Elements for Consideration .................................................................................................. 84 Discussion of the ‘hero bloc’ .................................................................................................................... 84 Analysis of the ‘traitor bloc’ ...................................................................................................................... 85 Analysis of Arguments ............................................................................................................................. 89 Additional Elements for Consideration .................................................................................................. 90 Discussion of the ‘traitor bloc’ .................................................................................................................. 91 Discussion of ‘Public Intellectuals in both the ‘Hero’ and ‘Traitor’ Blocs .............................................. 93 Data Findings, Analysis and Discussion in YouTube comments .............................................................. 94 Data Findings in YouTube comments: Word Frequency ........................................................................ 94 Analysis of the YouTube comments: Word Frequency ........................................................................... 96 Data Findings and Analysis of YouTube Comment: ‘likes’ and ‘replies’ ................................................ 97 Discussion of YouTube comments ......................................................................................................... 100 The Contestation of/Resistance to the Popular Antagonism................................................................... 102 Findings, Analysis and Discussion ......................................................................................................... 102 Chapter 6: Conclusions and Implications of Study .............................................................111