Wikileaks Weaving a www (Worldwide Web of War) Scenario?
By Erick San Juan
What could have been confidential cables from the US embassies around the world to a few, for others they were treated as pure gossips and should belong to entertainment page of a tabloid. Others treat such leaks and the plight of its founder as something out from a Bond movie. But whatever and however people take this information technology saga, the question is – who benefits? What could be the agenda of the manipulators behind such “leak”?
Since the release of classified US military papers by WikiLeaks, the material has been aggressively spun by various political factions. Meanwhile, virtually no attention has been devoted to investigating the source of this “leak”, or questioning the agenda behind it. (The Political Spinning of the WikiLeaks Release: Anti-war Whistleblowing or War Propaganda By Larry Chin)
It is very important to take into consideration the views of several sections of the society who are skeptical as to the authenticity of the cables and what motivated such propaganda.
In the case of our country, the timing of the leak is quite suspicious and the content of the cables is obviously laying the predicate of something this government has to look into seriously.
The point raised by former President Fidel V. Ramos that "They (leak of the US State Department's "secret cable") are not really reliable. It's possible that some of them may have been manufactured. You have to accept that possibility. That's the way it is just like the social media it's not completely factual. I'm not saying these are lies, they may be exaggerations of concoctions to fit a certain situation."
Could this be possible?
Actually the word Wikileaks came from wiki and leaks, and wiki is the Hawaiian word for quick. Just like the famous Wikipedia, wiki and encyclopedia. So, just what is a Wiki? What made them so popular?
At its core, a wiki is a content management system. What this means is it is designed to allow people to create and edit web pages without any knowledge of HTML. This allows writers to do what they do best, which is to write, and editors to do what they do best, edit.
The main thing that sets wikis apart from the pack is that they are community-oriented projects, often allowing the public at large to write and edit articles. This allows a wiki to draw upon the expertise of a large number of people, and to grow much quicker than if only a limited number of people were able to add to it.
The open-ended aspect of wikis does lead to some downsides. A wiki can be a target of people who want to post misinformation or simply vandalize an entry. However, the good outweighs the bad, and the open-ended nature allows wiki users to police themselves.
Also, compared to traditional methods of delivering content where one person or a limited group of people write and edit material to be posted on a website, wikis are very fast. Because they draw upon such a larger pool of writers, subjects can be entered at a much faster rate.
What differentiates a wiki from a blog is the fact that multiple people can -- and usually do in the case of popular wikis -- work on a single piece of content. This means that a single article could have as few as a single author or as many as tens or even hundreds of authors.
The bottom line here is that the Wikileaks can be edited, in Pinoy’s term – “bawas – dagdag” by a “community” who can “edit” the wiki to fit a certain situation. Translation – to create a pretext that will lead to a planned scenario that could benefit the interest of the few.
And the mainstream media’s role here is as crucial as the people behind the source, which is the Wikileaks, to choose what to make public and above all – the timing. Because the fact that the leaks that pertain to the Philippines are laying the predicate towards the overstretched global war on terror by our “neighbor”, this is quite alarming. Even our relationship with China is being pushed to the wall by unverified intrigues.
All these scenario-building, if not handled properly could lead to a regional conflict here and including the Korean Peninsula and in the Middle East.
Like the people in the Palace and those who occupied it before, they are now saying that we should be wary and take these “leaks” with a pinch of salt.
By Erick San Juan
What could have been confidential cables from the US embassies around the world to a few, for others they were treated as pure gossips and should belong to entertainment page of a tabloid. Others treat such leaks and the plight of its founder as something out from a Bond movie. But whatever and however people take this information technology saga, the question is – who benefits? What could be the agenda of the manipulators behind such “leak”?
Since the release of classified US military papers by WikiLeaks, the material has been aggressively spun by various political factions. Meanwhile, virtually no attention has been devoted to investigating the source of this “leak”, or questioning the agenda behind it. (The Political Spinning of the WikiLeaks Release: Anti-war Whistleblowing or War Propaganda By Larry Chin)
It is very important to take into consideration the views of several sections of the society who are skeptical as to the authenticity of the cables and what motivated such propaganda.
In the case of our country, the timing of the leak is quite suspicious and the content of the cables is obviously laying the predicate of something this government has to look into seriously.
The point raised by former President Fidel V. Ramos that "They (leak of the US State Department's "secret cable") are not really reliable. It's possible that some of them may have been manufactured. You have to accept that possibility. That's the way it is just like the social media it's not completely factual. I'm not saying these are lies, they may be exaggerations of concoctions to fit a certain situation."
Could this be possible?
Actually the word Wikileaks came from wiki and leaks, and wiki is the Hawaiian word for quick. Just like the famous Wikipedia, wiki and encyclopedia. So, just what is a Wiki? What made them so popular?
At its core, a wiki is a content management system. What this means is it is designed to allow people to create and edit web pages without any knowledge of HTML. This allows writers to do what they do best, which is to write, and editors to do what they do best, edit.
The main thing that sets wikis apart from the pack is that they are community-oriented projects, often allowing the public at large to write and edit articles. This allows a wiki to draw upon the expertise of a large number of people, and to grow much quicker than if only a limited number of people were able to add to it.
The open-ended aspect of wikis does lead to some downsides. A wiki can be a target of people who want to post misinformation or simply vandalize an entry. However, the good outweighs the bad, and the open-ended nature allows wiki users to police themselves.
Also, compared to traditional methods of delivering content where one person or a limited group of people write and edit material to be posted on a website, wikis are very fast. Because they draw upon such a larger pool of writers, subjects can be entered at a much faster rate.
What differentiates a wiki from a blog is the fact that multiple people can -- and usually do in the case of popular wikis -- work on a single piece of content. This means that a single article could have as few as a single author or as many as tens or even hundreds of authors.
The bottom line here is that the Wikileaks can be edited, in Pinoy’s term – “bawas – dagdag” by a “community” who can “edit” the wiki to fit a certain situation. Translation – to create a pretext that will lead to a planned scenario that could benefit the interest of the few.
And the mainstream media’s role here is as crucial as the people behind the source, which is the Wikileaks, to choose what to make public and above all – the timing. Because the fact that the leaks that pertain to the Philippines are laying the predicate towards the overstretched global war on terror by our “neighbor”, this is quite alarming. Even our relationship with China is being pushed to the wall by unverified intrigues.
All these scenario-building, if not handled properly could lead to a regional conflict here and including the Korean Peninsula and in the Middle East.
Like the people in the Palace and those who occupied it before, they are now saying that we should be wary and take these “leaks” with a pinch of salt.
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