“Cablegate”
February 7, 2011
by Anna Lemberger
It was great to see that so many people survived the snow-pocalypse of 2011 and were able to attend the Center’s first lecture of the semester, Friday, February 4 in Curtin 175. The lecture, or more accurately the symposium, entitled “Minding the Gaps: WikiLeaks and Internet Security in the 21st Century,” hosted speakers from various schools and universities who all took on the WikiLeaks issue from unique angles. Professor Sandra Braman from UWM’s Communication Department discussed the legal issues surrounding WikiLeaks, specifically the major leaks of 2010, and the changing relationships among the law, the state, and society. The second presenter, Professor Richard Grusin, the C21 director, looked less at the content of the leaked cables and more about the feelings or affect they created among the public. He also looked at the form WikiLeaks has taken, a form he calls “mediality.” Professor Laura DeNardis (Yale Law) questioned the political implications of WikiLeaks and focused on the politics of distributed denial of service attacks. Are DDoS attacks a legitimate form of dissent or protest in our digital age?
The lectures took me back to a recent episode of Conan O’Brien’s new show where he criticized the Egyptian government’s decision to shut down Internet access during the recent protests: “If you want people to stay home and do nothing, turn the Internet back on!” Although meant for a laugh, O’Brien’s statement brings up a lot of interesting points about the role of Internet in society. The Internet is undeniably an integral part of our lives, especially as a tool of information dissemination. But as a student in the School of Information Science and Technology, I have definitely become more analytical towards information and the environments in which it undulates. I question the effectiveness of the Internet in communicating information since the overabundance of information is often confusing and leaves a sort of digital disconnect between the reader and actual event. Is the Internet creating a “do nothing” public or an active citizenry? Professor Grusin’s presentation seemed to deal with this issue as he discussed the collective affect prompted by the “scientific journalism” of WikiLeaks.
Professor Grusin also showed a clip from “Collateral Murder,” the classifed US military video disclosed to WikiLeaks. The footage, taken from the gunsight of a US helicopter, showed the helicopter firing on and murdering innocent civilians outside Baghdad, yet the outcry was minimal compared to the torture photos from Abu Ghraib. Grusin’s consideration of a kind of “Iraq weariness,” along with the length of the video, seems to explain the relative silence around the videos. He then showed a clip from the game “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” an online, multiplayer shooter game that places players right in the action. It was a striking comparison that presented a similar video and medial interface and situation. The game is even programmed to say “good kill” and other statements which reflect the actual language of soldiers in the field. To Grusin, this fantasy/reality crossover highlights a collective affect and an environment that premediates affectivity of soldiers in the field. In comparing WikiLeaks to games like Modern Warfare, he focused on the way they both present information and control affectivity.
The issue of WikiLeaks and Internet Security is confusing and a relatively new arena of discussion. For more information on the presenters and their work click here.
