Whistleblowers in the MediaSphere

 

No, they aren't literally "whistle blowers" with a whistle and maybe a reflective jacket, no

Whistleblowers (without the space in between) are much more important that your local referee for your cousin's soccer game

They even have their own national center

Quote from the National Whistleblower Center

"A whistleblower is someone who reports waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, or dangers to public health and safety to someone who is in the position to rectify the wrongdoing" 

and 

"Whistleblowing is the act of disclosing information that you reasonably believe is evidence of a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety."

• They typically work in or at the organization or business they file their reports about but don't necessarily have to
• Whistleblower identities are kept confidential
• They are offered financial rewards for to help with prosecutions
• The title empowers citizens to step up and speak out about things that would otherwise go unchecked and unfixed
• There are laws protecting whistleblowers if their identity is revealed and the organization in question takes legal actions to discredit them
• Whistleblower reports are overviewed and addressed by a neutral party to avoid bias

Keeping Whistleblowers safe and free to report the truth for the benefit of the general population

But this blog is about media and communication technologies and the laws surrounding them

How does Whistleblowing reach the MediaSphere?

To a journalist, a whistleblower is just another term for credible anonyms source, the best kind. 

Most corruption leaks out into the media because people on the inside, these whistleblowers, report not only to "someone who is in the position to rectify the wrongdoing" but also The Media 

                                             but that's when journalists have to get careful 

"Leaking can go beyond whistleblowing" as quoted again from the National Whistleblowing Center because it "often involves the unauthorized release of sensitive material, some of it valuable to the public." 

So, the whistleblowers job is to report to "someone who is in the position to rectify the wrongdoing" and when they don't do that, by reporting to the media, "they can be charged with a crime" 

hence why they might be so keen to stay anonyms 

Some super famous cases involve...

Edward Snowden, he basically exposed a whole bunch of NSA Secrets learn more

You can see him talk more about it in this YOUTUBE VIDEO, what a way to relate back

Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning worked together, Chelsea being the whistleblower and Julian being the founder of WikiLeaks, to expose the US Army with information like the 

• Baghdad Airstrike Collateral Murder Video
• The Afghanistan War Logs 
• The Iraq War Logs
• Cablegate

Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers, containing secrets on the Pentagon regarding the Vietnam War

etc.

So, as future or current journalists, producers, directors, etc. remember

• Know the Laws - to protect yourself and the whistleblower
• Protect Anonymity - so they don't end up going to jail, getting fired, being sued, etc
• Understand what the whistleblower is risking by coming to you with their information
• Different Whistleblowers have different rules they have to follow
• "While the Whistleblower Protection Act protects public employees' rights to speak out about misconduct, it does no apply to members of the intelligence committee, since they work in a classified environment where the information is usually sensitive or secret"