A digital ménage à trois: Strategic leaks, propaganda and journalism

While leaking isn’t new, the scale of recent data releases and new methods deployed by political actors to influence public opinion transform the process. State and non-state actors controlling the flow of information (from politicians and governments to those seeking to undermine them, such as whistle-blowers) have long used leaks strategically to shape public opinion, decision-making and the distribution of power itself. Increasingly leaks are used within a networked propaganda strategy to offer pressures and opportunities unique to our globalised Digital Age. Powerful, competing elites, and those seeking to disrupt or question their power, combine leaking with emerging advanced methodologies in hacking, (counter-)surveillance and propaganda, meaning these cannot be understood in isolation in today’s information environment. This chapter introduces readers to scholarly and popular debates regarding strategic leaking, propaganda and journalistic reporting. We focus on political, governmental and whistle-blowing disclosures affecting the US, analysing how key actors attempt to manage and exploit leaks in the case studies of the 2016 US presidential election and the ‘Panama Papers’. We aim to generate discussion about the role of leaks in shaping public perceptions within democracies, ultimately questioning how such disclosures are used by whom and why.