Wikileaks

This book analyzes WikiLeaks as a journalistic phenomenon, working systematically to see how it does and does not fit with other forms of journalism, and what its existence and the response to it has to say about the contemporary nature of media, journalism, and the sharing of information. It is an important book because WikiLeaks is an important phenomenon, and this is the first attempt to look at WikiLeaks in a book-length analysis. It focuses not on academic theory or political judgment, but on practical questions of what WikiLeaks is, what it did, how organizations and the public have responded, and what this might mean for news reporting in an era of interlinked ownership and Internet communications. The prose is informal and accessible; the authors work through the basic philosophical and practical questions (how does WikiLeaks challenge alternative journalism, mainstream journalism, and authority? What are the explicit and the traditional responsibilities of journalists? Of journalism organizations?). They look at what WikiLeaks released about the Afghan and Iraq wars and how much of it was secret. They consider WikiLeaks in terms of the future of journalism, and end with a discussion of what it means for social media to function as a form of, or substitute for, journalism. The authors are the director of POLIS, the media think-tank of the London School of Economics, and a newspaper journalist (The Guardian, London, UK) and visiting teacher at London's City University. This is an important book for library collections, general readers, and readers with a specific interest in journalism, social media, or media and society.