The Battle of Wikileaks : Mass Self-Communication, Hacker Culture, and Financial Institutions

In 2010, WikiLeaks raised considerable discussion over the disclosure of sensitive documents to the public domain (Gellman & Harrell, 2010; Ludlow, 2010). Whether WikiLeaks is a media organization dedicated to bring important news and information to the public as WikiLeaks members claimed is questionable. Yet, it is a reality that Wikileaks is a network society emerged around a global web of horizontal communication networks that exchange information. It acts as an alternative media as well as a form of social movement that aims to change power relations in the society. This paper examines Castells’s mass self-communication thesis (2007, 2009) which argues that in the age of network society although the media do not hold power per se, they have become the social space where power is decided. Though the importance of mainstream media coverage for firm valuation has been well-documented, relatively little is known about the impact of as mass self communication - new horizontal and digital communication network - on stock values. As an attempt to fill this gap, this study investigates the influence of recent WikiLeaks disclosure on the stock market values of banking industry, in particular on Bank of America. The results of an event study analysis showed that Wikileaks indeed had an impact on Bank of America’s abnormal return. Specifically, Bank of America hit the lowest value (under $11) since 2009 following the interview on November 30, 2010