Roles
There are many popular cultural roles ascribed to the insider.
In criminal and social justice, whistle-blowing and leaks are seen as (often heroic) efforts of individual insiders to right wrongs by making secret information public, usually in David and Goliath situations (e.g. by revealing transgressions of governments, large corporations or other powerful organizations). When whistle-blowers are cultivated by outside forces, they are known as informants and informers.
In finance, insider trading on the stock market is widely thought of as a means of rapidly increasing wealth for the privileged few who have access to private business information. This is at times perceived as profiting unfairly at the expense of others. Some forms of insider trading are illegal.
In everyday life, insider knowledge is seen as a source of practical information that is contrary to the standard or official advice, delivered in the form of tips from insiders in a wide range of industries. Industry insiders tell outsiders what really goes on behind the scenes, so that they can take advantage of that knowledge. Related to this is personal insider access, where advantageous info can be gained through "knowing someone" ("I'll find out what really goes on from my brother the cop, or my aunt the judge, or my friend who works in accounting").
In business, tips take the form of insider knowledge used by individuals and companies, often away from the view of the public. Jobs and contracts, while openly advertised, in fact go to people based on exchanges of various inside info between key parties. Here, the insider channels can themselves be revealed to a wider audience by other insiders.
A variation of this is the insider-versus-expert authority conflict, where the uncredentaled, "non-expert" insider has a better functional knowledge of a situation, based on "how things really work", than the outside experts, whose expertise is often embodied in a set of rules. For example, there is the farmer who sees folly in new agricultural regulations created by a team of government experts without firsthand farming experience. Or the office staff that keeps a business running smoothly by unofficially ignoring and working around impractical rules devised by management consultants.
In the media, investigative reports, exposés and inside stories are popular genres that usually rely on insiders speaking out, with results ranging from the trivial to the monumentally whistle-blowing. an insider can also refer to an online forum
Read more about this topic: Insider
Famous quotes containing the word roles:
“There is a striking dichotomy between the behavior of many women in their lives at work and in their lives as mothers. Many of the same women who are battling stereotypes on the job, who are up against unspoken assumptions about the roles of men and women, seem to accept—and in their acceptance seem to reinforce—these roles at home with both their sons and their daughters.”
—Ellen Lewis (20th century)
“A concern with parenting...must direct attention beyond behavior. This is because parenting is not simply a set of behaviors, but participation in an interpersonal, diffuse, affective relationship. Parenting is an eminently psychological role in a way that many other roles and activities are not.”
—Nancy Chodorow (20th century)
“Productive collaborations between family and school, therefore, will demand that parents and teachers recognize the critical importance of each other’s participation in the life of the child. This mutuality of knowledge, understanding, and empathy comes not only with a recognition of the child as the central purpose for the collaboration but also with a recognition of the need to maintain roles and relationships with children that are comprehensive, dynamic, and differentiated.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)