Comparative Discourse Analysis of the Security-Privacy Dilemma: Salience of Security Issues in Printed Media.

New technologies represent opportunities (to ensure safety) and threats (to privacy and freedom), and also emphasize key tensions - between security and freedom/privacy and between security and its various costs (economic, health, public support, etc.). The dilemma of our times, for civil society, governments, the media, and individual citizens, is the level of safety we desire and at what price. In this process, the role of the media surpasses that of an intermediary and is important in the following five ways: first, in the provision of information – from the government, whistle-blowers, or the opinions of stakeholders; second, in the formation of opinion and education, explaining (in more or less balanced and/or biased terms) the meaning and significance of the information provided; third, in acting as an arena for various information and opinions, the media constitutes an opinion-formation platform in which political discourses are created; fourth, considering the tensions governments are facing - balancing between domestic and international obligations, needing to inform the public and keeping secrets, security and freedom, security and costs - the media also plays the role of a watchdog; and fifth, due the growing tension between  security and freedom, the critical media also serves as a channel for advocacy (e.g. The Guardian in the Snowden affair). The following paper provides a unique opportunity to compare media debates on three security issues (3D body scanners, malware Stuxnet and CCTV cameras) in 20 major dailies from ten countries during the period from January 2010 to April 2013. Qualitative media analysis is used as a tool for obtaining data for comparative analysis of security discourses and patterns of communication, which we use to identify and compare key actors and topics of the three debates. For the purpose of this paper we will focus on the role of civil society in the three debates, identifying the key discursive interactions between the key actors within the national and transnational public spheres.