How WikiLeaks has changed today's media

(CNN) -- While investigating a recent story about the geopolitical battle for natural resources in the Arctic, I searched for unfiltered, candid dialogue on the issue.

Instead, I found a web of conflicting theories, opinions and political doublespeak.

So, as many journalists have done since 2009, I went to WikiLeaks.

Mining through the treasure trove of diplomatic cables released by the organization, I found recaps of blunt conversations between American ambassadors and foreign diplomats describing their thoughts on this geopolitical tug-of-war in the Arctic.

It is the kind of access that veteran journalists once spent their careers cultivating. Years ago, such conversations may have taken place in muted whispers in the back of a restaurant, an off-the-record conversation with a confidential source.

Today, these details are laid out for everyone to read, digitized and accessible with a quick keyword search.

This isn't gossip in the school lunch cafeteria; this is more like having a hidden camera in the principal's office recording 24 hours a day.

Leaks as a tactical weapon

WikiLeaks has been credited as a force for political change, from Egypt's revolution to the battle for resources in the Arctic Ocean.

Top-secret State Department cables released by the organization in late 2010 provided some of the spark that fueled the Tunisian revolution. Sympathetic detonations created a chain reaction that touched Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen.