WikiLeaks Exposed!

Oh the wonderful wide world of WikiLeaks. It is ‘Gossip Girl’ gone viral. Instead of exposing secrets regarding the Upper East Side, Julian Assange is exposing the secrets of the world. Assange is an Australian journalist who created the WikiLeaks phenomenon posting undisclosed information gained from anonymous sources and whistleblowers from around the globe “Seemingly out of nowhere, Julian Paul Assange, a silver-haired Australian, has emerged as the world's most important newsman”(Wachter, 2010).He is the voice of those who fear to speak.

I see Julian Assange as a hacktivist. He hacks into computers for a politically motivated purpose, to unravel the secrets of our most powerful world leaders and organisations. He and his team go above and beyond in the efforts to ensure the world knows the truth about what is going on. I personally think he is an iconic person in today’s society and although I believe and understand how his efforts can be dangerous at times, I know he has good intentions. His posts cause a lot of controversy and his punishment is costly but this is a man who has dedicated his life to making sure the truth is exposed and the feared voices can be anonymously heard. It is a dangerous dedication and something Assange is well aware of “He fears that he will eventually be sent to the United States and perhaps even killed for his role in exposing sensitive US material through WikiLeaks” ( RT, 2012). People would beg to differ with my interpretation many seeing Assange as no more than a terrorist sex offender example being hactivists who recently tried to take over his site “Assange is the head of a new breed of terrorist. We are doing this as a protest against his attempt to escape justice into Ecuador. This would be a catalyst for many more like him to rise up in his place. We will not stop and they will not stop us,” DietPepsi writes.” ( RT, 2012).  

Social media plays a massive role in disseminating information. Wikileaks have access to both Twitter and Facebook currently having 1,783,259 (Twitter) Twitter followers and 2,167,529 (Facebook) likes on Facebook, ensuring the world stay connected and up to date with the latest scandals. By posting leaks on government corruption social media enable on to share or repost this information and it has the ability to go viral. Once viral it is a well known scandal and that’s when the media jump in. When the media jump in it is all over our TV screens and newspapers and the major publicity and uproar begins.

WikiLeaks strongly relates with Jenkins’ views of participatory culture. The public aren’t just acting as consumers to the site, they are contributors also. Most of Assange’s leaks come from anonymous sources from the public and news rooms. His exposing what others are too scared to expose. An activist to justice and honestly throughout the world.

I believe WikiLeaks will just continue to grow and grow. Although recent hactivists attempts to shut it down, with or without Assange’s freedom, his loyal staff members and mass public donations will enable it to continue. Everybody loves a scandal, but nobody ever likes the whisperer. To go against a world and the most powerful people in it is nothing less than inspiring.

References

Facebook, ‘Wikileaks’, Facebook, viewed 11^th January 2013, http://www.facebook.com/wikileaks?fref=ts

Twitter, ‘Wikileaks’, Twitter, viewed 11^th January 2013, https://twitter.com/wikileaks 

Unknown, ‘WikiLeaks Shut down by American Hackers’,RT.com, 9^Th August 2012, viewed 11^th January 2013, http://rt.com/usa/news/wikileaks-attacks-antileaks-group-293/

Wachter, P, 2010, ‘Just Who Is Julian Assange, The man Behind WikiLeaks?’, Aolnews., viewed 17^th January 2013, http://www.aolnews.com/2010/07/26/just-who-is-julian-assange-the-man-behind-wikileaks/

Social Success..

Digital activism is becoming more and more common in modern day society. Organisations and activist groups understand the mass audience’s digital media consume and are using this in an attempt to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns around the world. At some point most of us would have been subjected to digital activism or eCulture jamming. Everyday facebook, Twitter and several forms of social media are advertising and making us aware of several worldwide campaigns. A few that you may be aware of that I have involved myself in are World Visions 40 hour famine and Kony 2012.

Being one of the 947,000 people like on a Facebook page regarding Kony I became so caught up in his story and his life I wanted to get involved in KONY 2012. Jason Russel was the film maker behind the viral film and after going to government agencies and letters to the president no help was provided in an attempt to find and arrest Joeseph Kony. Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Africa which for 26 years has been killing, maiming, raping and looting and unfortunately mostly children known as child soldiers “ It is estimated that over 25,000 children have been abducted by the LRA in Uganda alone since 1987” (Unknown, 2012). The power of digital activism was shown instantly with the "Kony 2012" video brought 800,000 people to the donation page in a single day" (Baker, 2012). The film/campaign goes for 30 min and I encourage you all to watch http://vimeo.com/37119711 .The day itself unfortunately wasn’t successful as many didn’t appear on the day but that just goes to prove how digital activism is a powerful form of awareness. On 12^th May 2012 Joesph Kony was captured and taken into custody.

An interesting way to see how the public respond to certain issues is cultural jamming. It is the process of taking a known image and manipulating it with critical content. Mostly activists that part take in the jamming I believe are very artistic and strong willed and devoted. I see them as very brave individuals stepping up against mass organisations in order to get there opinion herd, regardless of the consequences. I think they should be perceived as strong minded individuals trying to have their voices heard. Mark Dery is the person behind the ‘cultural jamming’ propaganda and presents cultural jamming in a fine light. He himself could be seen as a ‘cultural jammer’ and through his blogs expresses his concerns. This can be seen at http://markdery.com/

I see social media to be a mass contribution to digital activism in the future. Modern day campaigns are becoming more and more significant through the use of social media and this will only continue to grow due to the mass audiences social media consumes

“Right now there are more people on Facebook then in the world 200 years ago” (INVISIBLE CHILDREN 2012).  Social media is the key to letting these activist groups have their voices heard.

REFERENCES

Baker, P, 2012, “How and why did KONY 2012 go viral Overnight?’, TECHNEWSWORLD, 4^th Novembr 2012, http://www.technewsworld.com/story/74835.html

INVISIBLE CHILDREN, 2012, “KONY 2012”, 11^th March 2012, viewed 11^th December 2012, http://vimeo.com/37119711

Unknown, 2012, “Child Soldiers”, UNICEF, 8^th March 2012, http://www.unicef.org.au/Discover/News/March-2012/Child-Soldiers-in-Uganda.aspx?gclid=CO_L1d6pkbQCFQZcpQodykAATg

http://markdery.com/