Table of Contents

Preface by Emily Bell vii

Introduction 1

1 What was new about WikiLeaks? 15

1.1 The creation of WikiLeaks 15

1.2 The challenge of WikiLeaks to alternative journalism 26

1.3 The challenge of WikiLeaks to mainstream media journalism 32

1.4 The challenge of WikiLeaks to power 40

2 The greatest story ever told? The Afghan war logs, Iraq war logs and the Embassy cables 46

2.1 Introduction 46

2.2 Collaboration and the Afghan war logs 48

2.3 The Iraq war logs: collaboration under stress 55

2.4 The cables and the legal attack 59

2.5 Rights, risks and responsibilities 67

2.6 The responsibility of journalism to avoid harm 69

2.7 Responsibility to tell the truth 72

2.8 Responsibility to hold power to account 75

2.9 Conclusion 83

3 WikiLeaks and the future of journalism 85

3.1 Introduction 85

3.2 WikiLeaks as part of the battle for the open Net 92

3.3 WikiLeaks as a model 114

3.4 Hacktavism redux 117

3.5 Advocacy NGO journalism 120

3.6 Foundation and public journalism 122

3.7 Mainstream whistle-blowers 127

4 Social media as disruptive journalism: media, politics and network effects 130

4.1 Transparency and the network 131

4.2 Social media as political communications: 'The Arab Spring' 135

4.3 WikiLeaks – what next? 141

4.4 Conclusion: WikiLeaks, networked journalism and power 147

Epilogue 160

Notes 165

Bibliography 182

Index 190