WikiLeaks Puzzle: Psychological Operations in Cyberspace

Media can be considered a new power source in the power handover process in the 21st century. Meanwhile, the Internet and cyberspace are considered charismatic and decisive communication tools in the strategic psychological operations due to their speed, accuracy, ability to transfer huge volumes of messages to a wide span of audience. Considering WikiLeaks a media-PSYOP instrument acting as the intermediate link between the performers and the audience of psychological operations, this research work conceives of WikiLeaks as a multilayered puzzle aiming at covert security-political interventions. It seeks to align the political decision makers with the international goals of the hegemonic powers through developing information trends and attacking their minds and perceptions. In so doing, it attempts to generate 'virtual power' and rebuild its declining potency in cyberspace by influencing the minds and hearts of the public audience. Examining the phenomenology of WikiLeaks and looking at how the psycho-cyber phenomenon was created, this article probes into the novel functions of psychological operations in cyberspace.