Today, the 10th, at 7:30 p.m., I am taking part in the international Rumos Jornalismo Cultural seminar at Itaú Cultural, in a discussion with the wonderful Kenneth Goldsmith of UbuWeb.
Rachel Bertol, journalist and curator of the event, suggests that we discuss:
How might technological transformations affect cultural journalism’s dialogue with the public, given that journalists are no longer the only people producing and circulating information? What is the role of cultural journalism in the face of the many new ways the public has found to access and produce cultural goods?
All we can talk about is WikiLeaks…*
I am organizing a few points:
WikiLeaks, and everything that has happened since November 28, calls a model of journalism into question.
It shows that investigative journalism of the Watergate kind, whose pillars were the journalist at a major news organization and their privileged sources, is now giving way to a media organism fed by a multitude, in the sense Toni Negri gives the term.
This multitude “inputs” data into the system, and WikiLeaks distributes that data.
There is no prior editing of this material or ranking of its contents.
Information does not appear after being polished by a journalist. Information happens as raw data and reaches the journalist.
The Leaks part matters much more than the Wiki part of WikiLeaks
The notion of a “leak” refers to questions central to contemporary philosophy, to the dynamics between smooth and striated spaces, processes of deterritorialization and territorialization, nomadism and sedentarization, war machines and apparatuses of capture.
The latest WikiLeaks revelations and the uproar over pseudo-events and gossip point to the TMZ-ification of journalism and diplomatic corps.
UOL’s album “The image of world leaders according to leaked WikiLeaks documents” leaves no doubt about this. It filters what can be learned about world leaders from the leaked documents, and reaches the following conclusions:
Cristina Kirchner is irritated by criticism, Chávez is crazy, Ahmadinejad resembles Hitler, Afghan president Hamid Karzai has no authority, German chancellor Angela Merkel takes no risks, and Israeli prime minister Biniamin Netanyahu cannot be trusted.
WikiLeaks is a network in the fullest sense, capable of self-regulation and rhizomatic growth and contraction.
It is a true “War Machine” against the “Apparatuses of Capture.”
The hackers’ Payback confirms the hypothesis.
One of WikiLeaks’ most interesting turns was Payback day.
It leaves no doubt about the accuracy of Andre Gorz when he says that hackers are the dissidents of digital capitalism.
WikiLeaks leaks rather than links.
Where the link joins points of departure and arrival, WikiLeaks leaks, flows. It displaces networks, creates other temporary connections, information hubs that are relocated, data that migrate and are recontextualized.
*These leaks of mine were only possible after an afternoon of long conversation with Luciana Moherdaui, Polyana Ferrari and Cicero Silva, and my morning walks with Nelson Brissac.