The term whistleblower carries a lot of baggage – but you wouldn't know this from its dictionary definition.
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines a whistleblower as "one who reveals something covert or informs against another." Specifically, it describes "an employee who brings wrongdoing by an employer or other employees to the attention of a government or law enforcement agency."
But whistleblowers, and whistleblowing by extension, have other problems more rooted in cultural perceptions. Despite the essential role whistleblowers play in exposing dangers and protecting organizations and the public from illegal or unethical behavior, they are often seen as creating problems where there were none. This has led to a common misconception of whistleblowers as troublemakers and informants who speak out in malicious, disruptive and unwelcome ways.
If we take another look in online dictionaries, some of the top synonyms for whistleblower speak volumes:
Echoed in movies, books and series worldwide, we're all familiar with the negative associations of these words. Across the media and identified in real life, however, "whistleblower" also tends to be loaded with stigma – or, at the very least, lives in a grey area weighted by how the media covers large-scale cases.
From some perspectives, whistleblowers are heroes; in others, they are dissidents creating disruption and upsetting the status quo. Often, the presentation of whistleblowers as troublemakers can...
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