Friday, September 23, 2016

Activist or Aggregator?

When looking at the world of information and how it has changed in the digital age of the internet, we have to ask the question: Activist or Aggregator? Is the person providing the information acting as an activist, or are they accumulating information for others to act on. This question especially comes into play when looking at Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Both have been involved in disseminating classified information through the organization WikiLeaks. Looking at their backgrounds helps answer the question.

Edward Snowden was working for as a U.S. government contractor in 2013 when he copied and then revealed to journalists as many as 200,000 classified documents. Snowden claims that his motivation for revealing the documents was so that Americans would be aware of the magnitude of domestic surveillance being done by the government. Edward Snowden is facing many repercussions for his actions and is currently living in political asylum in Russia. It seems that considering this, Mr. Snowden could certainly be thought of as an activist for the revelation of surveillance to the American public.   

On the other hand, Julian Assange, a founder and the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, seems to fall mainly into the role of an aggregator despite starting out as a journalist and activist. Assange has provided a platform where documents can be made available to the public. While the revelation of this information can have significant consequences for those involved, the information is not being reported in a journalistic way. WikiLeaks announces that they have published a document and the situation surrounding it and why that is important. Then WikiLeaks, without talking to those involved in any given situation, makes broad pronouncements about what is happening.

It can be seen that while roles of Activist and Aggregator are clearly separate things, they are certainly not mutually exclusive.

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