Assange and WikiLeaks: Secrets, Personas and the Ethopoetics of Digital Leaking

This article suggests a rhetorical orientation for some future work in persona studies. In this paper, I maintain that persona studies can usefully contribute to the close description of complexes of discursive events. In particular, I contend that persona studies can enhance efforts in the humanities to describe discursive events involving public figures who have achieved a degree of fame or notoriety. The descriptive purchase of persona studies is maximised, I argue, when we foreground its rhetorical and semiotic postulates.To make this case, I read the figure of Julian Assange rhetorically. By focussing on questions of ethos and ethopoesis – the performative, discursive construction of full human character – I show that Julian Assange can be usefully read as a particular, digitally inflected instantiation of the persona of the information activist.In this instance, persona studies helps us to read the constitutive relation between digital leaking and issues of secrecy and publicity, and to understand the fortunes of the figure of Julian Assange in terms of Assange’s particular performance of the persona of the digital information activist.

The roles of digital media in developing and strengthening public procurement in Thailand

This study examines the use of digital technology in the fight against corruption in public procurement in Thailand. The study aims to ascertain whether, and to what extent, two direct anti-corruption tools inspired by risk-based approaches or principal-agent theory are effective in controlling corruption in a country where collective action problems exist. These tools are: (i) e-bidding, a new, entirely online procurement system which replaces the previous system of e-auctions, which uses a mix of online and offline bidding methods and (ii) e-whistleblowing, an online reporting platform. Principal-agent theory suggests that effective tools should have the capacity to increase individuals’ perception that the expected costs of being corrupt is greater than the benefits. E-bidding is a managerialist strategy to prevent corruption. Online functions should increase the costs of corruption by reducing corrupt opportunities. E-whistleblowing is an interventionist strategy to detect corruption that has already occurred. In addition to increasing the chances of getting caught, ICTs could lower the individuals’ perceived cost of being a whistleblower, thus facilitating whistleblowing and corruption investigation. However, collective action theory suggests that the context of a highly corrupt country is unlikely to support the use of direct anti-corruption approaches. This study proposes (i) a managerialist hypothesis that e-bidding does not reduce the risk of corruption and (ii) an interventionist hypothesis that e-whistleblowing platforms are not effective anti-corruption tools in detecting corruption. The study uses a mixed methods methodology combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with Thai public authorities. To validate the qualitative findings, (i) regressions are used to measure corruption risk at different stages of e-bidding and e-auction; and (ii) statistical data on corruption cases in Thailand is presented. The findings suggest that digital technology in anti-corruption efforts in Thailand (i) can reduce corruption risk only to a limited extent and (ii) seems less effective in detecting corruption. Firstly, e-bidding does not reduce the risk of corruption relative to the e-auction system. Even though e-bidding performs better over time in its first year, corruption is still possible regardless of procurement methods. Secondly, the benefit of e-whistleblowing is less likely to overcome the problems of traditional whistleblowing and the risk attached. Online tip-offs mostly do not assist corruption investigation. The findings add to the literature that in a developing country where has long been plagued with corruption, it turns out that corrupt practices keep on going or getting worse. Digital technology may enhance public procurement and whistleblowing procedures. However, without indirect anti-corruption approaches or institutional pre-conditions such as political will and strong civil society, the use of direct anti-corruption interventions on their own is less likely to increase individuals’ perception that it is not worth participating in corrupt activities or it is worth the effort to oppose corrupt practices. The country is likely to slide back into systemic corruption as a result of collective action problems

Towards the Design of Effective Whistleblowing Systems

Whistleblowing systems serve as a vehicle for change, empowerment, and ethical/social responsibility. Organizational whistleblowing is a socially complex phenomenon that impacts people and organizations across various disciplines and sectors. Whistleblowing is a high-stakes act involving the dissemination of highly sensitive information about multiple actors with tangling stakes/interests. These features inherently make the task of designing effective whistleblowing systems (WS) a challenging one. To address this, our paper develops key design objectives (DO’s) for effective WS. We do this by conducting a qualitative literature review of whistleblowing research and by availing elements from design science methods and stakeholder theory. We present four key DO’s for effective WS, which we support with a whistleblowing news dataset. This paper serves as a first step in developing design principles (DP’s) for effective WS. This research contributes to a growing discourse on organizational whistleblowing in the IS community

Data retention, journalist freedoms and whistleblowers

As members of the ‘fourth estate’, journalists have enjoyed certain limited protections for themselves and their sources under the laws of various countries. These protections are now uniquely challenged in the context of metadata retention and enhanced surveillance and national security protections. This article examines the recent changes to laws in Australia and the position of journalists as investigative watchdogs. It considers the nature of the new laws, the responses of journalists, the broader context of commercial journalism and the rise of the infotainment business model, and the role of the ‘networked fourth estate’ and non-institutional actors in creating accountable government in Australia.Sal Humphreys, Melissa de Zwar

Ensuring Accountability and Transparency in Networked Journalism

WikiLeaks has often been criticized for being an organisation seeking transparency without being transparent and accountable itself. One of the dominant issues in this debate is the question of the whistleblowingplatforms’ responsibilities in terms of giving an account of their activities, given the sensitive nature of the leakedand elaborated material. However, in the new media ecosystem, where news reporting, and investigativejournalism, in particular, cross boundaries, and become increasingly networked, where professional journalistsand other actors, such as whistleblowing platforms, closely collaborate, the importance of concepts like openness,responsiveness and transparency are vital. This chapter aims to shed light on how actors working for digital whistleblowing platforms are able to ensure openness, responsiveness and ethical standards with regard to theirown activities, particularly as they work together with news media outlets. To analyse these issues, we draw onthe conceptual model of online media accountability developed by Domingo and Heikkilä (2012). The chapterfocuses on whether and how a networked and ‘shared accountability’ can be implemented given that in networkedjournalism truth is increasingly found through collaboration. The paper is based on a document analysis as wellas interviews with managing editors from selected whistleblowing platforms about practices of mediaaccountabilit

The design and evaluation of an anonymous, two-way, ethics management reporting system

Despite a recognized need for whistleblowing systems in academic research, little to no attention has been given to the necessary requirements for and specific design of effective whistleblowing systems. In order to increase the rate of reporting, it is critical for reporting systems to be designed with the intent to reduce employee fears and inhibitions by reducing the potential for retaliation. Therefore, the goal of this three-essay dissertation was to enhance a firm\u27s ability to solicit and investigate concerns by proposing and evaluating a system aimed at fostering anonymous, two-way communication between employees and investigators of wrongdoing. In essay one, design science (Hevner et al., 2004; March & Smith, 1995; Walls, Widmeyer, & El Savvy, 1992, 2004) was employed in order to theorize and justify the design of an anonymous reporting system artifact. In doing so, existing reporting systems were examined and modern technologies were incorporated into a proposed design of an anonymous, two-way ethics management reporting system. Essay two reviewed existing theories in the extant whistleblowing literature and relied upon communication research, both inter-personal and computer-mediated, to address the limitations of prior theory regarding reduced perceptions of credibility for anonymous whistleblowers. The experiment tasked subjects with evaluating simulated two-way communication between an investigator and an employee attempting to blow the whistle on financial wrongdoing. The results provide strong evidence that two-way communication can reduce the credibility gap between perceptions of anonymous and identified whistleblowers. Lastly, essay three assessed the system design proposed in essay one from the perspective of the organizational insider. The proposed system was also compared to other channels available to report wrongdoing, such as the use of open door policies and telephone hotlines. Two simultaneous online experiments tested user perceptions of anonymity protections provided by each channel, as well as the specific whistlebloweroriented design features proposed in the design. This essay provides evidence that online reporting systems are perceived to provide significantly higher anonymity protections than phone hotlines and open door policies, while select features of the proposed system impact user perceptions of anonymity

Rethinking the practice of accountability journalism in the digital age. The inception and development of the first Portuguese university-based investigative journalism centre and whistleblowing platform

At a time of worrying change, when Western traditional media outlets appear to be engulfed by the collapse of the advertising-based business model and can hardly bear the strain brought about by new technologies, the present study identifies an increasing information deficit as regards quality accountability reporting. Taking up Duffield and Cokley’s challenge to change in response to the demands of the time, the present paper supports the development of VALQUIRIA, at https://valquiria.org, a transmedia, multiplatform investigative journalism project integrated in the Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences of the NOVA University of Lisbon. Valquíria, adopting a new sustainable media model, represents the very first attempt in Portugal to create a completely independent space for the education of investigative journalists, the assistance to foreign and local reporters, the production and diffusion of accountability reporting, technological products and innovative practices which can aid the profession. Featuring a vibrant crowd-sourcing and collaborative policy, its ultimate aim is to reinvigorate and enhance the practice of accountability journalism in Portugal, proving its urgency for preserving and guarding a healthy democracy. To change even more the traditional paradigm of public interest journalism, the project features a whistleblowing platform called PTLeaks: built in cooperation with the HERMES Center for Transparency and Digital Human rights, it is the first Portuguese GlobaLeaks initiative applied to investigative journalism