“It’s Not Easy To Do a WikiLeaks”: A Cypherpunk Approach to Global Media Ethics
Description
PURPOSE: This project studies the moral philosophy of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to determine the extent to which WikiLeaks is informed by a conception of global media ethics. SUBJECTS: The study draws on extensive written and spoken primary sources authored by Assange, using textual analysis to interpret his writings and interviews. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This study draws upon Clifford Christians’ theory of communication ethics to provide a model for how a theorist might organize their global media ethics. ANALYSES: Using the categories from Christians’ ethics, the study organizes the ethical reflections found in the disparate writings of Assange into four categories: basic ethical presuppositions, critiques of nationalism, critiques of professional journalism, and analyses of communication technologies. RESULTS: The study finds that Assange offers a well-developed theory of global media ethics, which includes the assertion of basic moral axioms alongside the application of those axioms to political, professional, and technological issues in communication ethics. CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes that WikiLeaks is best understood as being informed by cypherpunk ethics, a form of global media ethics that posits justice as its basic principle and that uses cryptography to pursue privacy for the weak and transparency for the powerful.
“It’s Not Easy To Do a WikiLeaks”: A Cypherpunk Approach to Global Media Ethics
PURPOSE: This project studies the moral philosophy of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to determine the extent to which WikiLeaks is informed by a conception of global media ethics. SUBJECTS: The study draws on extensive written and spoken primary sources authored by Assange, using textual analysis to interpret his writings and interviews. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This study draws upon Clifford Christians’ theory of communication ethics to provide a model for how a theorist might organize their global media ethics. ANALYSES: Using the categories from Christians’ ethics, the study organizes the ethical reflections found in the disparate writings of Assange into four categories: basic ethical presuppositions, critiques of nationalism, critiques of professional journalism, and analyses of communication technologies. RESULTS: The study finds that Assange offers a well-developed theory of global media ethics, which includes the assertion of basic moral axioms alongside the application of those axioms to political, professional, and technological issues in communication ethics. CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes that WikiLeaks is best understood as being informed by cypherpunk ethics, a form of global media ethics that posits justice as its basic principle and that uses cryptography to pursue privacy for the weak and transparency for the powerful.