- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd; First Edition edition (28 Sep 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 185065994X
- ISBN-13: 978-1850659945
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 14 x 1.6 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 603,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Not everything we learn about intelligence from the media is true, but some of it is. If you want to know how and why this is so, and also where links between government, intelligence and the press can potentially work against the public interest, you should read this book. Robert Dover and Michael Goodman's well-chosen team of academics, journalists and government insiders provides an exceptionally stimulating commentary on a crucial and important relationship which (as the editors put it) bridges 'the gap between the unknown and the known'.' --Professor Keith Jeffery, Queen's University Belfast, who in 2005 was appointed to write the first Official History of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), covering the years 1909 49
'The media's role as a check on the abuse of secret power is little understood, but of enormous importance for those who value the safeguarding of civil liberties in the world's democratic cultures. This splendid volume does much to clarify the relationship between intelligence services and the journalists who report on their activities. A must read for all friends of an open society.' --Loch K. Johnson, Regents Professor of International Affairs University of Georgia, Senior Editor, Intelligence and National Security
'Explores the four-way relationship between the agencies, media, public and 'the other' -- the enemy of the day. For the agencies, the media represents a significant source of open source intelligence but the media are not just observers. Both news and fictional media provide crucial outlets by which agencies and governments attempt to communicate their preferred versions of events and issues. The media are involved in the creation of the 'realities' of intelligence as they are perceived by the public and, if propaganda works, by 'the enemy'. Spinning Intelligence considers a subject of great importance on which there has been hitherto relatively little published.' --Peter Gill, Research Professor in Intelligence Studies, University of Salford
'The media's role as a check on the abuse of secret power is little understood, but of enormous importance for those who value the safeguarding of civil liberties in the world's democratic cultures. This splendid volume does much to clarify the relationship between intelligence services and the journalists who report on their activities. A must read for all friends of an open society.' --Loch K. Johnson, Regents Professor of International Affairs University of Georgia, Senior Editor, Intelligence and National Security
'Explores the four-way relationship between the agencies, media, public and 'the other' -- the enemy of the day. For the agencies, the media represents a significant source of open source intelligence but the media are not just observers. Both news and fictional media provide crucial outlets by which agencies and governments attempt to communicate their preferred versions of events and issues. The media are involved in the creation of the 'realities' of intelligence as they are perceived by the public and, if propaganda works, by 'the enemy'. Spinning Intelligence considers a subject of great importance on which there has been hitherto relatively little published.' --Peter Gill, Research Professor in Intelligence Studies, University of Salford
Product Description
Throughout the twentieth century, especially during wartime and the Cold War, intelligence agents routinely used the media to publish and broadcast material that would deceive external enemies, thwart domestic subversion or simply to change the way readers thought about fascism or communism. Today stories are chanelled to journalists in order to promote a news agenda deemed favourable to MI5, MI6 or to the CIA, or to 'spin' the coverage of key issues. Investigative reporters often have a more adversarial relationship with the security services, seeing them as over-mighty agents of the state who should be subjected to forensic scrutiny of what they get up too - allegedly for the public good. The furore over 'rendition' of terrorist suspects by the CIA and the complicity of British agencies in this process is but one example of journalists uncovering practices that the intelligence community would rather have kept secret. The contributors to this book, drawn from former intelligence officers, the media and academia, explore this intriguing and often fraught contest, shedding light on many hitherto unknown aspects of the intriguing and symbiotic relationship between the 'second oldest profession' and the print and broadcast media. Speaking from the perspective of the journalist are Chapman Pincher and Gordon Corera (Security Editor, BBC), whose essays trace the evolving relationship between news media outlets and the government, especially with regards to advances in technology. Reporting from the perspective of the political institution are Sir David Omand, Nick Wilkinson, Michael Goodman, and Anthony Campbell, who explain governmental oversight of intelligence agencies, the operation of clandestine information units, and the laws that govern the control of information. Richard Aldrich investigates the exploitation of the globalized media by intelligence agencies; Scott Lucas and Steve Hewitt tackle the CIA's use of open sources for intelligence purposes; and, Wyn Bowen examines the real-world use of open source intelligence in rolling back Libya's nuclear program. Robert Dover and Pierre Lethier explore the depiction of intelligence in popular culture, a practice that helped create rendition and facilitate torture, and condition our responses to both. In the final essay, Patrick Porter focuses on cultural representations of the war on terror.
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The web of information
23 April 2010
Format:Hardcover
Though focused primarily on issues in Britain "Spinning Intelligence: Why Intelligence Needs the Media, Why the Media Needs Intelligence (Columbia/Hurst)" provides lessons for anyone, anywhere, who wants to learn about espionage, media reporting and what citizens need to know.
A series of essays by representatives of media, government and intelligence-gathering agencies reveals the linkages and tensions that exist as information is gathered, withheld, selectively leaked or reported to the world at large. It is how that information reaches the public--its veracity, its completeness or limitations, the exploitation of propaganda presented as objective reporting--that shapes public perception and policy and so becomes important to the general public.
"In every part of society, and in all our social interactions," intelligence has a role to play in conditioning the political and social environments in which we live," the editors note.
Essays treat such issues as the veil of secrecy that previously shielded Britain's spy agencies, but note that, as terror has come to Britain's shores, and people's day-to-day lives are affected by interaction with law enforcement, privacy has declined. Warnings about terror polots bring, not surprisingly, attention to intelligence gathering, and the role of media in spreading those warnings, or reporting on possible threats, comes under scrutiny.
The move toward more openness, in fact, began collapsing in the United States even before Sept.11, with the advent of the Bush administration which almost immediately began reclassifying materials that had become public, including material referring to policy failures immediately preceding the Korean War. The Sept.11 attacks led to a huge clampdown on publicly released information that continues, rather unabated, today. Combined with the financial crisis at many media organizations that no longer pursue Freedom of Information requests or don't want to challenge the government, the essayists find a growing governmental denial of transparency.
Fascinating and unexpected bits of commentary pop up in these essays. There's an extensive discussion of Alfred Hitchcock and his espionage-centered movies, a look at TV's "24" and its message, the use of open-source information to track threats, an analysis of asymmetrical warfare going back to medieval times, and more.
This is an informative collection, detailed but not so scholarly as to be out of the reach of ordinary readers who need to know how to read between the lines.
A series of essays by representatives of media, government and intelligence-gathering agencies reveals the linkages and tensions that exist as information is gathered, withheld, selectively leaked or reported to the world at large. It is how that information reaches the public--its veracity, its completeness or limitations, the exploitation of propaganda presented as objective reporting--that shapes public perception and policy and so becomes important to the general public.
"In every part of society, and in all our social interactions," intelligence has a role to play in conditioning the political and social environments in which we live," the editors note.
Essays treat such issues as the veil of secrecy that previously shielded Britain's spy agencies, but note that, as terror has come to Britain's shores, and people's day-to-day lives are affected by interaction with law enforcement, privacy has declined. Warnings about terror polots bring, not surprisingly, attention to intelligence gathering, and the role of media in spreading those warnings, or reporting on possible threats, comes under scrutiny.
The move toward more openness, in fact, began collapsing in the United States even before Sept.11, with the advent of the Bush administration which almost immediately began reclassifying materials that had become public, including material referring to policy failures immediately preceding the Korean War. The Sept.11 attacks led to a huge clampdown on publicly released information that continues, rather unabated, today. Combined with the financial crisis at many media organizations that no longer pursue Freedom of Information requests or don't want to challenge the government, the essayists find a growing governmental denial of transparency.
Fascinating and unexpected bits of commentary pop up in these essays. There's an extensive discussion of Alfred Hitchcock and his espionage-centered movies, a look at TV's "24" and its message, the use of open-source information to track threats, an analysis of asymmetrical warfare going back to medieval times, and more.
This is an informative collection, detailed but not so scholarly as to be out of the reach of ordinary readers who need to know how to read between the lines.
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