WikiLeaks (Reading Journal)

Since we have been on the subject of profiles for the past week, I would like to share an article that I came across about Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, a website that anonymously releases documents and various information on the Iraq wars. The article tells us that Julian is on the run, while also profiling him as a character and discussing his overall role in the founding and maintenance of WikiLeaks.

The article starts off as a profile would, and states towards the beginning that he arrived for the interview “sporting a woolen beanie and a wispy stubble and trailing a youthful entourage that included a filmmaker assigned to document any unpleasant surprises.” Quotes like this shed light on Julian’s personality as a whole, rather than only in relation to WikiLeaks. This technique of describing seemingly meaningless details is often used in profiles to give readers a better idea of the individual, and the author is effective in going about this.

The author states that Julian “checks into hotels under false names, dyes his hair, sleeps on sofas and floors, and uses cash instead of credit cards, often borrowed from friends.” This makes Julian’s situation seem like a movie, showing us that he is truly physically on the run. The reason he is on the run is because he is now making his “most brazen disclosure yet: 391, 832 secret documents on the Iraq war.” The effect of dropping this information could obviously be detrimental to him.

Overall, the article starts off with a lot of personal details about Julian, giving us a clear picture of him, and segways into hard facts about him and WikiLeaks. I think this is a really effectively written profile/feature/hard news story hybrid, and I am curious what category it really falls into? It is an engaging, informative read and it helped me understand how to combine different journalism techniques to end up with a really penetrating story

READ THE ARTICLE (LINK)