As the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s article on Reporters’ Privilege mentions, a journalist is somebody who gathers new for the purpose of reporting it to the public. An activist, however, is defined by dictionary.com as a vigorous and active advocate of a cause, typically one involved in politics. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are two particularly well-known figures in today’s news, both being involved in protests against governments overstepping the personal security boundaries of the public. Information about the doings of these men suggests that Assange is a journalist while Snowden is an activist.
Due to information provided in different articles, Assange can be described as a journalist. Julian Assange’s background is clearly written in BBC’s article Profile: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. According to BBC, Assange is the founder of Wikileaks, a website that publishes confidential images and documents. While many support Assange for exposing the truth regarding sensitive matters, others do not, believing that exposing sensitive information is dangerous. The U.S. government, however, is clearly not a supporter due to what the article describes as Wikileaks’ release of secret U.S. documents and war footage displaying an American helicopter shooting Iraq’s civilians. Assange is clearly a journalist, since he believes it is his duty to release this subject matter to the public. The Wikileaks website itself describes their goal as being “to bring important news and information to the public.” This clearly acknowledges that Assange’s mission is that of a journalist.
Drawing from information provided by The Guardian’s article How Edwards Snowden went from loyal NSA contractor to whistleblower, written by Luke Harding, Edward Snowden can be defined as an activist. The article explains how Snowden realized that the NSA wanted to know just about everything about everyone and that the fail-safes built into America’s system meant to keep the NSA from extending their boundaries failed. Snowden later got a job in Hawaii and became one of the NSA’s “sysadmins”, giving him access to the agency’s secret material. He stole a large amount of top-secret documents without leaving a trace and disappeared, claiming he was suffering from epilepsy when in fact, he was hiding in China. Snowden then contacted journalist Glenn Greenwald and documentary film-maker Laura Poitras, who eventually aided him in exposing the documents that proved unlawful spying activity of the NSA on the American public. Following the publication of these documents, Snowden left China and ended up in Russia, where he currently seeks asylum. In order to expose the NSA, Snowden gave up his life in the states. However, he was not the one to release the information to the public; he gave the information to established people in the media field and let them do the work. Because of this, Snowden is not a journalist but an activist, for he is an incredibly passionate advocate for the privacy of the American people.
Both Assange and Snowden have a prominent role in the media, both a negative and positive one. On one hand, they are described as protectors of the public: Assange, in believing that the public should be given access to information on current happenings that they would otherwise be denied, and Snowden as unmasking the NSA as spies of the American public and invaders of privacy rights. On the other hand, the Profile: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange BBC article explains how Assange is currently in a media spotlight, seeing as he is accused of two cases of sexual assault. Although he denies these accusations, describing them as a political trap, this puts him in a negative spotlight in the media. Snowden is also prone to being displayed in a negative light. As NBC News reports in an article NSA Officials: Snowden Emailed With Question, Not Concern, he is being criticized for emailing a question regarding whether Executive Orders can overrule federal statute or not instead of telling the NSA directly about his concerns with invasions of the privacy of Americans before leaking secret documents, although it is unknown whether other emails were exchanged.
The relationship Assange and Snowden have to journalism is a very close one, Assange being a version of a journalist himself as well as being the subject of many journalists’ focuses, and Snowden for his interaction with journalists in order to give them information to pass onto the public. In The Guardian’s article How Edwards Snowden went from loyal NSA contractor to whistleblower, written by Luke Harding, it is mentioned that Snowden closely involved a columnist for The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald, in the initial release of the top secret U.S. documents to the public. Although this is the most major contribution Snowden has given to American journalism, he also continues to give journalists subject matter by allowing them to interview him.
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