The political economy of WikiLeaks: Transparency and accountability through digital and alternative media

The mainstream news media are expected to facilitate democracy by informing citizens, and holding corporations and governments accountable. This article demonstrates the uberization of the media through an analysis of WikiLeaks. Due to the complicity of the mainstream news media within the nation state – influenced by economic and political power relations – journalism becomes incapable of promoting this transparency and accountability, leaving those necessities to the public – and to alternative media platforms. Alternative media platforms such as WikiLeaks, which exist transnationally and are not beholden to one state, have the potential to fulfil journalism’s traditional role of transparency and accountability. We argue that the release of the ‘Collateral Murder’ video by WikiLeaks, and the surrounding events, is an example of how alternative media platforms uberify journalism through the dissemination of information, avoiding the barriers that limit mainstream news media and thus become journalism’s future. This draws into question the future development of journalism, in particular values and norms around accountability, transparency and bias, as digital leaking troubles relationships between journalism, various institutions and the public. As the ideologies of uberification continue to shape journalism, these values, norms and relationships of traditional journalism could be strengthened or may face new challenges and obstacles.