“Something Old, Something New … ”: WikiLeaks and the Collaborating Newspapers — Exploring the Limits of Conjoint Approaches to Political Exposure

Abstract

New media are now contributing to the democratization of access to information, its creation, and its consumption. This has effectively altered the coveted gatekeeping and public agenda setting roles usually ascribed to traditional media. At the same time, a new relationship is emerging between these Web 2.0 media platforms and their traditional media counterparts, especially print media. While newspapers sometimes rely on less encumbered online sources for cutting-edge news exposés, the new-media entities also often count on the long-established traditional media institutions to provide credibility and critical analysis of new media’s Web-generated news content. It is this notion of a conjoint approach to political exposure that was evident in the WikiLeaks engagement of and association with traditional news entities such as the New York Times, the Guardian, Der Spiegel, the Jamaica Gleaner, and other newspapers as outlets for its classified secret content. The chapter argues that this collaboration, although an uneasy marriage of necessity, may eventually settle into a stable cohabitation of the public sphere and will help to redefine the character of media and the meaning of “news.”