Date of Graduation
5-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Journalism (MA)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Journalism
Advisor/Mentor
Gerald Jordan
Committee Member
Dale Carpenter
Second Committee Member
Kasey Walker
Keywords
Communication and the arts, Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, Espionage act, Whistleblower
Abstract
On June 9, 2013, the world was introduced to Edward Joseph Snowden, a 29-year-old NSA contractor and the man responsible for the biggest leak of classified government documents in American history. Almost immediately, comparisons were drawn between Snowden and another famous whistleblower--Daniel Ellsberg, the man behind the 1971 release of the Pentagon Papers. The overwhelming rhetoric surrounding the comparison was that Ellsberg was a true American patriot and that Snowden was nothing like him, that he was a traitor. Despite Ellsberg's own claims that he and Snowden are exactly alike, the media still finds Snowden lacking when comparing him with Ellsberg. This research examined a sample of new organizations' portrayals of Ellsberg and Snowden during their respective whistleblowing scandals to determine what similarities and differences exist in the coverage.
Citation
McLoud, K. (2015). Treasonous Patriot: A Comparative Content Analysis of the Media's Portrayals of Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1066