Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society: Studying media coverage

Karin Wahl-Jorgensen and Lucy Bennett

Cardiff University

Media strand research questions

• How have the British news media represented the Snowden leaks and digital surveillance more broadly?

• How have journalists responded to the events following the Snowden leaks, in particular with regards to press freedom and the handling of security-related information?

• Methods: – Content and discourse analysis of media coverage

(newspaper, television and blogs)– Interviews with journalists

Research carried out so far…• Content analysis of four (out of a planned

five) peak moments of coverage of Snowden leaks and surveillance in UK national newspapers.

• Ways of constructing debates over surveillance: – E.g. angles, opinions expressed, sources, words

used to discuss surveillance

5/27

/201

36/

10/2

013

6/24

/201

37/

8/20

137/

22/2

013

8/5/

2013

8/19

/201

39/

2/20

139/

16/2

013

9/30

/201

310

/14/

2013

10/2

8/20

1311

/11/

2013

11/2

5/20

1312

/9/2

013

12/2

3/20

131/

6/20

141/

20/2

014

2/3/

2014

2/17

/201

43/

3/20

143/

17/2

014

3/31

/201

44/

14/2

014

4/28

/201

45/

12/2

014

5/26

/201

46/

9/20

146/

23/2

014

7/7/

2014

7/21

/201

48/

4/20

148/

18/2

014

9/1/

2014

9/15

/201

49/

29/2

014

10/1

3/20

1410

/27/

2014

11/1

0/20

1411

/24/

2014

12/8

/201

412

/22/

2014

1/5/

2015

1/19

/201

52/

2/20

152/

16/2

015

3/2/

2015

3/16

/201

53/

30/2

015

4/13

/201

5

0

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100

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400

Timeline of Media Coverage

NSASnowdenGCHQ

Initial Snowden Revelations David Miranda Case Lee Rigby Report Embassy snooping Snooping on World Leaders Charlie Hebdo Aftermath

Case Study Timeframe Number of ArticlesTotal (Relevant)

Edward Snowden 09/06/13 - 16/06/13 214

Snooping on Embassy and World Leaders

29/06/13 - 27/07/13 and 11/10/13 - 08/11/13

253 (135)

David Miranda Case 18/08/13 - 15/09/13 204 (125)

Lee Rigby Report 15/11/14 - 13/12/14 102 (78)

Charlie Hebdo Aftermath 07/01/15 - 04/02/15 278 (80)

Case Study Coverage by Newspaper

National security

Human rights

Personal privacy

Content of Snowden leaks

Terrorism

Policing

Security Services

Personal online behaviour

Spying on corporations

Counter surveillance

Spying on governments

Application/changes to the law

Government oversight

Social media/game surveillance

Extradition/Asylum

Non-UK/US government reaction

Whistleblowing

UK/US government response

The Miranda case

Mass public surveillance

Freedom of the press

Other

International relations

Surveillance Failure

None

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Surveillance Angle

Law/judiciary

US spy agency

UK spy agency

Journalist/media

Business person/tech company

Citizen

Civil society group

Police

Expert

Edward Snowden himself

Edward Snowden documents

Other

Poll

Politician

Civil service/diplomat

NGO

David Miranda

Think Tank

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Sources

Terror laws are acceptable

Terror laws are excessive

Privacy must be surrendered for national security

Surveillance should be increased

Surveillance is acceptable if helping to fight terror

Surveillance should not be feared if nothing to hide

Mass surveillance is unacceptable

We are in a big brother/surveillance state

Intelligence Services should be more transparent

Intelligence Services should be more accountable

Intelligence Services should be better funded/have more resources to fight terror

Social media companies should do more to fight terror

Social media companies are acting sufficiently towards terror

The Snowden leaks are in the public interest

The Guardian is praised

Press freedom must be protected

Distinguishing online content and determining terrorism will be a problem

The UK Govt has passed the buck from the Intelligence Services onto social media companies

Nations have always spied on their friends and foes

The Intelligence Services are out of control

The Police were acting in the interests of national security/their actions should be expected

So many suspects, Intelligence Services cannot monitor all of them

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Expressions of Opinions by Sources

Examples: Top Three Opinions on surveillance

Social media companies should do more to fight terror: • David Cameron: “The Prime Minister called on the technology

companies to live up to their “social responsibility” and develop ways of blocking inflammatory material before it was posted”.

Surveillance is damaging to international relations:• President Hollande: “We cannot accept this kind of behaviour

between partners and allies” he said. “No negotiations of transactions can be held in all areas until we have these guarantees [that the eavesdropping will stop].

Surveillance should be increased:• Col Tim Collins (former SAS officer): “The reality is that Islamic

fundamentalists have seized the modern tools of communication to facilitate their murderous campaigns. Governments – whose first responsibility is to defend their citizens and subjects – must fight to identify and prevent these campaigns using every method available”.

Targets of SurveillanceTarget Percentage None listed 78.5% Foreign politicians/world leaders 6.0% Terrorists 5.3% Public 3.9% 'allies' 2.6% Friends 1.1% Other 1.0% Governments 0.4% Criminals 0.3% UK/US politicians 0.2% Partners 0.2% Journalists 0.2% 'enemies' 0.1% Businesses 0.1%

Conclusions so far…• Debates around surveillance framed by elites rather than citizens. • The consequences and extent of mass surveillance of citizens:

Largely invisible in media coverage• Lack of discussion of:

– Citizen rights surrounding surveillance (including human rights, privacy)– Mass surveillance– Regulation of surveillance

Conclusions so far…

• Dominance of discourse on state and corporate responsibilities for surveillance • Protecting national security• Anti-terrorism surveillance

• Lack of information about extent of surveillance

• Media coverage provides justification for mass surveillance