WikiLeaks, argues Stalder, is typical of a new type of "super-empowered" individual or small group able to "intervene in social dynamics at a systemic level, for the better or worse".
"There has been much hope that the Internet -- the blogosphere and citizen journalism -- would be able to replace the old, obsolete structures. On the whole, this has not happened, which is not surprising since new media never simply replace old media. What we can see, however, is a slow, structural transformation of the public sphere in which the old news media is complemented by new actors, designed to address the weaknesses of the mainstream media while making use of its core capacity to bring stories to lots of people."
So does WikiLeaks represent a corrective to the much-invoked crisis of journalism caused by a lobby-controlled, risk-averse media? Stalder is cautiously optimistic that cooperation between mainstream media and alternative sources of information such as WikiLeaks will reinvigorate the public sphere: "The combination of having access to a highly edited story as well as to sprawling source material could be very powerful."
