Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Desrene Vernon-Brebnor

Abstract

Kenneth Burke's dramatic pentad was used to analyze Edward Snowden's National Security Agency (NSA) document leaks from June 5, 2013 through October 1, 2013 as published in the New York Times (NYT) and the Guardian. The articles were coded by newspaper, headline, reporting journalist, page prominence, word count, publication date, and tone of stories. Content analysis revealed that there was significant difference in coverage of Snowden: the Guardian utilized the word "swhistleblower"s extensively in a positive way while negative words like "leaker" drove NYT coverage of Snowden. Both papers overlap in the identification of Snowden's actions as one of the most significant intelligence disclosures since the Pentagon Papers.

Subject Area

Leaks (Disclosure of information)--United States., Leaks (Disclosure of information)--Press coverage., Whistle blowing--United States., Whistle blowing--Press coverage.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/116/

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