I have never fully understood the backlash that emerges from whistleblowers or leakers brought on by journalism. I was surprised to see how willing Snowden was to reveal himself to the world. How he didn't care to be defined as a leak. However, by exposing issues of privacy, he lost all of his privacy. I am curious as to how the role of privacy defines and evolves within whistleblowing and leaking through the media's representation.
A recent vice article describes a whistleblower as someone who's only choice is to go to the press to right a wrong wherein a leaker is someone who is personally invested in a subject to use media to generate awareness. The article goes on to assert that a leaker is more protected than a whistleblower, but I've found conflicting beliefs within other news outlets. For example, in this story, the rights of a whistleblower are more protected via the Whistleblower Protection Act. More so, the article addresses the idea that the difference between whistleblowing and leaking emerges from the content of the information disclosed. Because the information disclosed by a leak is often more classified or of higher importance to the government, the protection and the privacy of leaks is compromised. Those in power will try anything they can to reveal identities and in a sense destroy the privacy of leaks.
With this idea in place, I believe that within the context of journalism, both whistleblowers and leakers live a life in the public beginning with exposing the private. While some sources are able to remain hidden, still, no source is erased from journalism. Anonymous does not exist anymore, and the world of leaking has evolved existing as a more present force of journalism than ever before. When I look at journalism's relationship to leaking, I now see a violation of privacy. This violation though is almost like a sacrifice. Whistleblowers and leakers risk or sacrifice their own privacy for journalism. Before learning about all of this, I never fully understood why coverage of whistleblowers and leakers was as extensive as it is, but now I see that journalism is just as hungry for exposing privacy as it is for protecting it.
That's an interesting concept how by leaking and exposing once private documents, all of sudden you become publicly known! It also makes me wonder what other strict security software will be developed based on recent incidents, especially like the Panama Papers.
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