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Charlie Beckett

November 29th, 2011

WikiLeaks: News In The Networked Era – the book and the lecture Video and Audio Podcasts

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

November 29th, 2011

WikiLeaks: News In The Networked Era – the book and the lecture Video and Audio Podcasts

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

There is a long academic review of the book which is kind enough to call it an ‘enthralling read’, although it correctly points out that this was not a theoretical book. We were more interested in the significance of WikiLeaks for journalism, not for media theory. You can download a pdf of that journal review of WikiLeaks- News In The Netowrked Era The review starts on page 8 of that document.
You can order the book, ‘WikiLeaks: News In The Networked Era’ here (there will be a Kindle version at some point)
You can watch a video of the lecture (as well as audio, details of the book etc) by clicking here.
You can listen to an interview with me talking about WikiLeaks and its latest activities including the #gifiles Stratfor release here
WikiLeaks is the single most challenging journalism phenomenon to emerge in the digital era. The stories it has broken have rightly been compared to historic scoops such as Watergate. The model  it created is a radical development in journalism story-telling on a par with the creation of a new genre like blogging.  It has compromised the foreign policy operations of the most powerful state in the world and has caused the most mighty news organizations to collaborate with this relatively tiny editorial outfit. Yet it might also be about to disappear. Do we care? Will we miss it? Or will others take up its example? Or will it bounce back stronger than ever?

The book was written with James Ball who used to work at WikiLeaks and is now at the Guardian. It is an attempt both to tell the history of WikiLeaks and assess its significance in the context of wider changes in journalism and political communications.

Clay Shirky was kind enough to say this about the book:

‘In this terrific book, Charlie Beckett and James Ball weave the disparate threads of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks – the future of journalism, of statecraft, of secrecy – into a readable and compelling narrative. Essential for anyone interested in the future of free speech or global politics’

 

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Charlie Beckett

Posted In: Director's Commentary | Journalism | Research | Research and Publications | Videos, Interviews and Podcasts