Mar
9
Final Paper Topic
March 9, 2015 | 5 Comments
The Snowden Files: A complicated political, social and ethical Issue. But was it an Overshare?
I found the deliberating process of coming up with a final research topic difficult for this class. My goal was to link this project to the rest of my academic research, which is mainly international relations and China. Looking to find a project that contributed to my understanding within this academic track, I first considered dissident citizens–such as Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who publicly spoke out against the atrocities committed by the Chinese government, and Julian Assange, activist for complete freedom of information and founder of WikiLeaks–but these didn’t quite fit into the definition of “Oversharing”.
It came to me then, that I could focus on the actions of one person; Edward Snowden. In 2013, Snowden disclosed thousands of classified documents that he had acquired while working as a contractor for the NSA, and it is this act of releasing information which brought public attention to the extent of the government’s surveillance and started a controversy over the constitutionality of the “shadow” reach of government agencies. While Snowden is controversial–both for violating the government contract which he was under, and for his central position amid heated political and social debates–I will argue that his actions were not necessarily a direct “overshare” as it relates to class. Rather, my thesis will be that while they were not a direct “overshare”, they were in fact related, as they were the actions of one man who chose to reveal secret information about numerous individuals without their explicit consent.
Adam
Comments
5 Comments so far
I do think that Edward Snowden probably has more to do with the “oversharing” topic than the other two figures mentioned. I believe that the Edward Snowden topic also relates to the tension that exists between transparency and security. It may not be an important part of what you are arguing, but I think I have a hard time telling whether or not you are an advocate of transparency or security (i.e. keeping information secret).
I could be wrong, but I actually do think that you can push for arguing for a direct overshare if that’s what you want. Ever since the Patriot Act came out in 2001 and ever since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, I do think that more Americans are starting to favor security over transparency, for better or for worse. If the information is leaked and if more people believe that it shouldn’t have, then I do believe that you can push for a “direct overshare.”
P.S. Even though these three books I’m going to recommend are not directly related to Edward Snowden, you may find them helpful for this topic or for future research. They are:
-Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Polic – Amitai Etzioni
-Secrecy: The American Experience – Daniel Patrick Moynihan
-Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor – Warren Bennis; Daniel Goleman; James O’Toole; Patricia Ward Biederman
Hi, this sounds like a great topic! I do not think that Snowden “overshared”, since oversharing indicated that sharing was permitted, yet it got out of hand. Rather, I believe that Snowden divulged information that he was not permitted to reveal. As such, this look more like a rebellious act against society, not oversharing.
You write that the two are related. In what ways are they related?
As long as you make sure to relate this fully to the question of oversharing, it will work well. Perhaps the article “The Case for Oversharing” in the Dropbox will be helpful for you as well…
I think the important distinction is that oversharing tends to be restricted to private, intimate, personal, often-taboo details–and Snowdon mainly revealed governmental secrets…so it would be really easy to get off track and not relate it back to oversharing. I do not think he was oversharing, really, and so the fundamental research question as you currently have it may not work for you. But if you end up defining it as some kind of exploration of personal oversharing versus the revelation of political secrets, that might work just fine.
John Paul, thanks for the book suggestions, I will definitely look into them! As far as my particular argument regarding Snowden and Cybersecurity and the leaking of confidential or secretive material, I am still working on narrowing the topic so that it relates more directly to class. I will definitely consider your recommendations!
Miriyam, I see the relatedness of the Snowden case with direct “Oversharing” in that while it does not necessarily fall into the categories such as ‘taboo’ etc. as discussed in class, it is indirectly related in that the actions of one individual were in fact seen by many people as an overshare. But even more so, the controversy over whether or not the information should be public or private unsurprisingly shocked some people while falling in line with the expectations of others. Again, this is a very rough working thesis statement so it will have some flaws until I work through them and solidify my argument in the coming weeks.
Carrie, I realized this week that for some reason I couldn’t find the invite to the Dropbox group, so maybe after class we can discuss the process of joining the Dropbox group as well as briefly the working thesis? Or schedule a meeting during your office hours.
Just a few possible ideas.
1) Dr. Hintz, I do know that you said that you wanted the class to try to stay away from fiction. I feel a little ashamed to have heard of the following book I’m going to mention, but the truth is that I never read it before. I do know, however, that Adam is trying to relate politics to oversharing. One thing I know is that William S. Burroughs, a beaknik, wrote a book called Naked Lunch. In a few states, the book was banned due to the “oversharing” of the book’s content. Perhaps if Adam focuses less on the content of the book and more on William S. Burroughs’ character, the political commentary and the court cases concerning the book, I’m not sure if he would then be allowed to do something related to this topic. This topic probably also has to do with international politics as well. One thing I remember about the beatniks is that they often liked to go to Mexico. Part of the book, for instance, does take place in Mexico.
2) There was also the movie “The People vs. Larry Flynt.” In it, Larry Flynt, a businessman of the Penthouse magazine, made a satirical cartoon about Jerry Falwell (if you read the movie’s synopsis on Wikipedia, you’ll see how this topic could relate to oversharing). Offended, Jerry Falwell filed for a lawsuit, and Larry Flynt was called before the Supreme Court. I know that this movie was based on a real-life incident. However, there probably is not as much accessible information about this topic as idea #1. I can be wrong.
3) I know that Adam said he was into Asian studies. Before China became communist, there was a man named Sun Yat-sen who tried to make China a republic and more independent of Western influence. Admittedly, this probably doesn’t have that much to do with oversharing because oversharing has more to do with taboos than just political dissidence. I doubt it, but one may find life incidents in which Sun overshared if he/she researches Sun’s life.
Also, I do know that opium was introduced to the Chinese by the British. I’m not sure if there has ever been a book about a Chinese opium-user who overshared (either in China, America, etc.).