Feature article research.

For our upcoming feature article assignment, I have decided to focus on WikiLeaks as my main point of interest. More specifically, I’ve been examining the relationship between journalists and WikiLeaks. Also, I’ve recently started to focus on the differing perceptions between whistleblowers who directly approach journalists and whistleblowers who provide their information through organisations such asWikiLeaks. I’ve been very interested in where this new lead has taken me.

 So, considering that this is a rather dense subject, how have I been conducting my research? Initially, I started with some Internet research on WikiLeaks; looking into its origins and role within the Australian and international media landscape. I also conducted the same initial research with whistleblowers and how they have influenced and affected the Australian media.

I then decided to read up on archival news stories that dealt with similar issues that I was seeking to address. All of these were accessible via the websites of a number of different newspaper’s websites and they provided a good insight into the previous work conducted on this topic.

Above: Image sourced from Google.

I also watched a couple of documentaries about WikiLeaks, which proved useful in providing in-depth information about the organisation and it’s head, Julian Assange. One documentary was obviously more prejudiced against WikiLeaks, while the other seemed to provide a pretty equal representation of points for and against the website. I made sure to take into account this bias, including the bias within other sources that I used and even my own personal bias.

From this background research, I started to get an idea as to the major key players involved in my research topic. After a discussion in class, I decided to begin researching for Australian whistleblowers and well known figures who have supported the journalistic use of WikilLeaks. They included Andrew Wilkie and and Laurie Oakes. After some further research, I decided that they were appropriated interviewees for my article and I therefore made preparations to request interviews.

Currently, I am working on my draft of my article, which I hope to bring the final draft into class next to have it checked over.