Demographics

With the topic on Edward Snowden, I think personally that it effected everyone, not one specific demographic over the other.  When people heard about what he did everyone was in shock, some were in shock because they couldn’t believe that he had actually done that and others were in shock because they couldn’t believe that our government did the things that Edward had leaked out to the public.  I think that effected many people in many different ways, many people that have a strong sense of loyalty to the government, didn’t agree with Snowdens acts in the slightest, however on the other hand there were other people that weren’t so closely tied with the government perhaps that agreed 100% with what he did and they supported him in his acts.  For instance I found a couple articles about this, one that was against Snowdens

actions and another that was for his actions.  1) The article focuses on computer system administrator Edward Snowden’s copying of up to 1.7 million top secret documents from the U.S. National Security Agency’s (NSA) computer networks and methods of preventing this from happening again in the future. It comments on the need for different sections t

o have different root passwords and user passwords with traffic between systems encrypted. It states that the ability to plug in USB memory sticks or blank DVDs should be disabled while mobile phones and cameras should be forbidden and guarded against. It talks about the use of Faraday cages to block radio frequency emissions and two-factor authentication. It reflects on the NSA’s decision to fire 90 percent of its system administrators and the NSA’s cloud computing network.  2)The articlepresents a resolution in support of American computer specialist Edward Snowden as whistleblower. Snowden, a specialists for contractors hired by the U.S. National Security Agency, has admitted to offering classified information to reporters for “The Washington Post” and “The Guardian” newspapers. The American Library Association (ALA) commends Snowden as a whistleblower who has done a valuable service in support of the principles of free association, free speech and privacy.  I think that it attracts everyone that watches the news or keeps up with crimes/happenings in the United States.  When this happened it seemed as though everyone was talking about it, not just certain classes or certain races or genders, but everyone.  I can for sure see it repel people into thinking that our government is good and just, when all of these things are getting leaked out to the public eye.  Everyone wants to think the our government is good and safe, but when this happened I think that it repelled a lot of people away from thinking our government was good and safe. I suppose I would say that inequalities are represented with this topic because we don’t truly know what is going on with our government, making many of us excluded from a lot of things that go on.   However there are a select few that work for the government in very high security/non spoken about jobs the secretive jobs like the one that Edward Snowden had.

References

Resolution in support of whistleblower Edward Snowden. (2013). Progressive Librarian, (41), 116-118.

TOXEN, B. (2014). The NSA and Snowden: Securing the All-Seeing Eye. Communications Of The ACM, 57(5), 44-51. doi:10.1145/2594502