How Journalists Data-Mined the Wikileaks Docs 59
meckdevil writes "Associated Press developer-journalist extraordinaire Jonathan Stray gives a brilliant explanation of the use of data-mining strategies to winnow and wring journalistic sense out of massive numbers of documents, using the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs released by Wikileaks as a case in point. The concepts for focusing on certain groups of documents and ignoring others are hardly new; they underlie the algorithms used by the major Web search engines. Their use in a journalistic context is on a cutting edge, though, and it raises a fascinating quandary: By choosing the parameters under which documents will be considered similar enough to pay attention to, journalist-programmers actually choose the frame in which a story will be told. This type of data mining holds great potential for investigative revelation — and great potential for journalistic abuse."
Don't forget everyone else! (Score:2, Informative)
Terrorists and foreign intelligence services will also be doing this to use against the United States and its allies, not just journalists. Wikileaks has provided the raw material for data mining to find things the US doesn't even realize about itself, or its allies. There is no surprise that Bradley Manning has been charged with aiding the enemy [dailymail.co.uk].
The fallout continues, hopefully it won't be literally. [telegraph.co.uk]
Al-Qaeda Already Using Wikileaks Material Against Us [pajamasmedia.com]
Taliban Study WikiLeaks to Hunt Informants [nytimes.com]
Wikileaks: US will have to reshuffle diplomats following revelations [telegraph.co.uk]
'They're informants... if they get killed, they deserve it': New book reveals shocking disregard of Julian Assange towards Afghans named in WikiLeaks cables [dailymail.co.uk]
Since I can anticipate the follow ups:
No, Wikileaks didn't do an adequate job of scrubbing the documents of names at various points which is why they are useful to the Taliban and other groups building death lists.
Yes, I have seen reports of people being killed due to Wikileaks publishing their name, you just have to dig a lot to find them. For some reason it doesn't seem to be a popular news item. Go figure.
Oversight of US diplomacy, military, and intelligence activity is the role of the Congress elected by voters.
Even if nobody was killed, Wikileaks has resulted in a significant disruption to US diplomacy and antiterrorism efforts. (You pull out informants due to their cover being blown and you lose valuable intelligence.)
Poll finds that more Americans oppose WikiLeaks [tampabay.com]