Intelligence and Media Studies

This book examines the interaction between intelligence services and the mass media. It analyses a variety of case studies in intelligence-media relations and explores how on the one hand intelligence services often use the media for disinformation as well as a source of knowledge and political influence, while on the other hand the media strives to uncover intelligence secrets and wrongdoing. In the past, natioanl media could be counted on to tread a careful line in the handling of intelligence secrets. The massive explosion of the global media and the development of new and uncensorable forms of mass communications, such as the Internet, forces intelligence services to re-evaluate their relations with the media and adopt new media strategies. Many services, which traditionally relied on government-enforced secrecy, develop strategies aimed at presenting a controlled degree of openness while not restricting operational freedom.