WikiLeaks Shifting Media Balance of Power

New kind of 'global investigative journalism' emerging
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 30, 2010 4:45 AM CST
WikiLeaks Shifting Media Balance of Power
The New York Times had to ask a foreign paper for access to WikiLeaks' latest leak after incurring its wrath.   (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

WikiLeaks' document dumps are pushing old media into a new role, a Politico analysis finds. Papers like the Guardian and the New York Times—which was left out of the latest round of leaks after publishing a profile critical of Julian Assange—are starting to work together across borders to act as conduits for material gained by others. Such collaboration is unprecedented in journalism, experts note.

A "new balance of power" is emerging, says an NYU professor, pointing to a Times request for WikiLeaks to keep harmful documents under wraps. "In the revised picture we find the state, which holds the secrets but is powerless to prevent their release; the stateless news organization, deciding how to release them; and the national newspaper in the middle, negotiating the terms of legitimacy between these two actors.” (More New York Times stories.)

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