Outrage without Consequences? Post-Snowden Discourses and Governmental Practice in Germany

In 2013 Edward Snowden’s disclosures of mass surveillance performed by US intelligence agencies seriously irritated politicians and citizens around the globe. This holds particularly true for privacy-sensitive communities in Germany. However, while the public was outraged, intelligence and security...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Media and communication (Lisboa) 2017-01, Vol.5 (1), p.7-16
Main Authors: Steiger, Stefan, Schünemann, Wolf J., Dimmroth, Katharina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Communication
Communities
Continuity
Control
Cooperation
Criticism
cyber security
Cybersecurity
Discourse analysis
Discourses
dispositive analysis
Disruption
German–US intelligence cooperation
Information gathering
Information Politics
Intelligence
Intelligence gathering
Intelligence services
International cooperation
International relations
Media Law
Media Politics
News media, journalism, publishing
Official documents
Political science
Politicians
Politics
Privacy
Regulation
Snowden
Sociology
Sociology of knowledge
Surveillance
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Summary:In 2013 Edward Snowden’s disclosures of mass surveillance performed by US intelligence agencies seriously irritated politicians and citizens around the globe. This holds particularly true for privacy-sensitive communities in Germany. However, while the public was outraged, intelligence and security cooperation between the United States and Germany has been marked by continuity instead of disruption. The rather insubstantial debate over a so-called “No-Spy-Agreement” between the United States and Germany is just one telling example of the disconnect between public discourse and governmental action, as is the recent intelligence service regulation. This article considers why and where the “Snowden effect” has been lost on different discursive levels. We analyze and compare parliamentary and governmental discourses in the two years after the Snowden revelations by using the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) to dissect the group-specific statements and interpretive schemes in 287 official documents by the German Bundestag, selected ministries and agencies within the policy subsystem. These will be analyzed in reference to actual governmental practice.
ISSN:2183-2439
2183-2439
DOI:10.17645/mac.v5i1.814