A Breach of Consensus: Outlining a Comparative Study on the Snowden/NSA Case

• In Event: Pushing the Boundaries of Journalism Studies: The NSA Affair and the Global Legitimation Challenges of Journalism

Abstract

After Snowden’s exposure of the NSA’s files, it became difficult to think separately about privacy and national security. However, it is not easy to publicly discuss what sort of trade-offs are taking place between these two social values and what are their implications to the public legitimacy of internet surveillance. This panel introduces a comparative study of how this particular breach of consensus was articulated in journalism in eight countries: the USA, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, France, Germany, Finland and Norway. Three questions at the core of analysis are: What were the frames of interpretations wherewith the internet surveillance was made sense of? How the NSA was domesticated in regard to international politics and power relations, the role of journalism in the pursuit of transparency, and the objectives of internet governance? Are there any long-standing effects on public discourse(s) beyond the immediate scandal triggered by Snowden’s exposure and exile.

Authors

• Heikki Heikkila, University of Tampere

• Risto Kunelius, U of Tampere