An Exploration of the Whistleblowing Phenomenon and its Mechanisms in the USA

Abstract

The present dissertation explored the whistleblowing phenomenon in the United States and highlighted the case of Edward Snowden. Judging the persona of the whistleblower has always been a matter of discussion in the American community. It is an area of debate where the views vary and oppose one another. The exclusive case of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Snowden made the government project him as a traitor while the public seemed to support his message and consider him a hero. The deliberation about his image kept the momentum of not settling on a final judgment. Within the scope of this dissertation, the attained results affirm that the young whistleblower is a national hero. As reinforcement to the confirmed hypothesis, the current work asserts a collection of convincing arguments to put an end to the long lasting debate about the image of Snowden, proving that whistleblowers are often subject of rejection by the government if their message falsifies in any shape or form the credibility of the system upon which it operates.