WikiLeaks

This week in Media Law and Literacy class we separated off into groups to build a presentation for next week's class. My group was assigned to present on Mediasphere including the topics of MSM, Alternative Media, Echo Chamber, Whistleblower, WikiLeaks, and Citizen Journalism. The topic I researched was WikiLeaks. 

WikiLeaks was founded by Julian Assange in 2006 and it is an international non-profit organization. It releases news leaks and classified media. It is essentially a whistleblowing platform that receives its content from anonymous sources. It is a place that releases information for the public to have access to the raw documents that other news outlets would not consider publishing. 

This platform forces transparency and gives the public more information to determine their own judgment based on the matters being discussed. However, if things are not substantiated it could spread false information among the general public. 

WikiLeaks has affected society as a whole and it will continue to do so for as long as it's around. For example, President Trump used information from WikiLeaks in his 2016 campaign to use against his opponent. WikiLeaks is not a credible source that politicians and our entire society should rely on. WikiLeaks has enough power that it can influence political campaigns, public policies, how businesses are run, etc. but it should not. No matter what the instance is, society could be basing its foundations off of rumors. Society is basically taking a gamble on what to believe and what not to believe. 

Misinformation about certain segments of society can also occur. Spreading false information can happen to any segment of society whether it is about the minority or majority, the rich or the poor, what age you are, what gender you are, and what your sexual orientation is.  Any group can be a target. 

Wealthy people are impacted by WikiLeaks as they can become a target. This article mentions a few billionaires who suffered from a WikiLeaks posting. In addition, those who are not well educated could take the information at face value. As for young, they may not have enough life experience or awareness to determine what might be true and what might be false. They are more likely to fall for false information because they are naive and gullible. As for my generation, we tend to get our news from less traditional sources and often opt out of researching matters independently to check those sources' credibility. We typically believe anything we see online. We have a reputation of just reading the headlines and making our judgments from there. 

Attitudes could be influenced by information whether it be true or false. There are instances where crucial information is revealed through WikiLeaks that people have tried to hide which I think is important for the public to be aware of. Also, mainstream news sources can be biased so WikiLeaks can provide another point of view. However, users of the site must remember to investigate what is published to determine the facts.