Insider
Encyclopedia
An insider is a member of any group of people of limited number and generally restricted access. The term is used in the context of secret, privileged, hidden or otherwise esoteric information
or knowledge
: an insider is a "member of the gang
" and as such knows things only people in the gang know.
In our complicated and information-rich world, the concept of insider knowledge is popular and pervasive, as a source of direct and useful guidance. In a given situation, an insider is contrasted with an outside expert: the expert can provide an in-depth theoretical
analysis that should lead to a practical opinion, while an insider has firsthand, material knowledge. Insider information may be thought of as more accurate and valuable than expert opinion.
In criminal
and social justice
, whistle-blowing and leak
s are seen as (often hero
ic) efforts of individual insiders to right wrongs by making secret information public, usually in David and Goliath
situations (e.g. by revealing transgressions of government
s, large corporation
s or other powerful organization
s). When whistle-blowers are cultivated by outside forces, they are known as informant
s 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 tip
s 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 contract
s, 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 report
s, exposés and inside stories are popular genres that usually rely on insiders speaking out, with results ranging from the trivia
l to the monumentally whistle-blowing.
Active participation is a defining factor: being a witness
alone does not make a person an insider. An insider is usually one who is privy to, not simply fact
s and procedures, but also the day-to-day working relationship
s and dynamics of people in a group.
Underlying the concept of the insider is a widespread belief, and fact, that in most human social activities, there are two simultaneous, intertwined systems or processes at work: the "way things seem" and the "way they really are". In any one situation, the way things seem may or may not actually be how things work most of the time, but there is always some significant deviation, usually through the clandestine activity of small numbers of individuals within the larger group. Revealing these activities is the role of the insider.
In this way, an insider comes into existence only on or near the act of revealing what they know to an outside party. The majority of people have some area of insider knowledge, but they only become insiders when tapped for that information.
In law, a formal value is assigned to insider knowledge when it is cited to qualify a person as an expert witness
. It is also recognized in intelligence
and law enforcement, when insiders are deliberately created in the form of deep cover
spies
and undercover officers, to obtain knowledge not available through surveillance
and investigation
.
Two broad classes of insider are commonly recognized: those who are principal players in close-knit groups with specific objectives (e.g. the upper management of a corporation; members of a secret society
), and participants in a general area of endeavour, such as a particular industry or profession
, a company
, or a government department (e.g. a lawyer
, an employee of XYZ Inc., a postal worker
).
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
or knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
: an insider is a "member of the gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
" and as such knows things only people in the gang know.
In our complicated and information-rich world, the concept of insider knowledge is popular and pervasive, as a source of direct and useful guidance. In a given situation, an insider is contrasted with an outside expert: the expert can provide an in-depth theoretical
Theory
The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...
analysis that should lead to a practical opinion, while an insider has firsthand, material knowledge. Insider information may be thought of as more accurate and valuable than expert opinion.
Roles
There are many popular cultural roles ascribed to the insider.In criminal
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
, whistle-blowing and leak
Leak
A leak is a hole or other opening, usually unintended and therefore undesired, in a container or fluid-containing system, such as a tank or a ship's hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can enter the container...
s are seen as (often hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
ic) efforts of individual insiders to right wrongs by making secret information public, usually in David and Goliath
Goliath (Bible)
Goliath , جليات Ǧulyāt ) known also as Goliath of Gath is a figure in the Hebrew Bible . Described as a giant Philistine warrior, he is famous for his combat with the young David, the future king of Israel...
situations (e.g. by revealing transgressions of government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
s, large corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s or other powerful organization
Organization
An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...
s). When whistle-blowers are cultivated by outside forces, they are known as informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
s and informers.
In finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
, insider trading
Insider trading
Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...
on the stock market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
is widely thought of as a means of rapidly increasing wealth
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
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 tip
Tip
A tip is an extra payment made to certain service sector workers in addition to the advertised price of the transaction. Such payments and their size are a matter of social custom. Tipping varies among cultures and by service industry...
s from insiders in a wide range of industries
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
. 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
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
, or my aunt the judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
, or my friend who works in accounting").
In business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
, tips take the form of insider knowledge used by individuals and companies, often away from the view of the public. Jobs
Employment
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
and contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
s, while openly advertised
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, 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
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
who sees folly in new agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
regulations created by a team of government experts without firsthand farming experience. Or the office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
staff that keeps a business running smoothly by unofficially ignoring and working around impractical rules devised by management consultants.
In the media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
, investigative report
Investigative report
An investigative report is a document that is meant to provide information on a certain topic that is not easily obtained. It is meant to present the reader with a wealth of easily understood information and usually contains an interview or two on the subject...
s, exposés and inside stories are popular genres that usually rely on insiders speaking out, with results ranging from the trivia
Trivia
The trivia are the three lower Artes Liberales, i.e. grammar, rhetoric and logic. These were the topics of basic education, foundational to the quadrivia of higher education, and hence the material of basic education, of interest only to undergraduates...
l to the monumentally whistle-blowing.
Definitions
Insider is a fluid term: depending on the usage, it can have strongly positive, negative, or neutral connotations. It is probably safe to say that in all contexts, being an insider implies relatively great, if fleeting, personal power, and therefore engenders some form of respect, and in certain situations, fear.Active participation is a defining factor: being a witness
Witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...
alone does not make a person an insider. An insider is usually one who is privy to, not simply fact
Fact
A fact is something that has really occurred or is actually the case. The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability, that is whether it can be shown to correspond to experience. Standard reference works are often used to check facts...
s and procedures, but also the day-to-day working relationship
Business interaction networks
Business interaction networks are networks that allow businesses and their communities of interest to collaborate and do business online securely via the Internet....
s and dynamics of people in a group.
Underlying the concept of the insider is a widespread belief, and fact, that in most human social activities, there are two simultaneous, intertwined systems or processes at work: the "way things seem" and the "way they really are". In any one situation, the way things seem may or may not actually be how things work most of the time, but there is always some significant deviation, usually through the clandestine activity of small numbers of individuals within the larger group. Revealing these activities is the role of the insider.
In this way, an insider comes into existence only on or near the act of revealing what they know to an outside party. The majority of people have some area of insider knowledge, but they only become insiders when tapped for that information.
In law, a formal value is assigned to insider knowledge when it is cited to qualify a person as an expert witness
Expert witness
An expert witness, professional witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have expertise and specialised knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and legally...
. It is also recognized in intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
and law enforcement, when insiders are deliberately created in the form of deep cover
Deep Cover
Deep Cover is a 1992 crime thriller film starring Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum and directed by veteran actor Bill Duke. It is also notable for its theme song of the same name, composed by Dr...
spies
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
and undercover officers, to obtain knowledge not available through surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
and investigation
Criminal procedure
Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated criminal law.-Basic rights:Currently, in many countries with a democratic system and the rule of law, criminal procedure puts the burden of proof on the prosecution – that is, it is up to the...
.
Two broad classes of insider are commonly recognized: those who are principal players in close-knit groups with specific objectives (e.g. the upper management of a corporation; members of a secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
), and participants in a general area of endeavour, such as a particular industry or profession
Profession
A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain....
, a company
Company (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...
, or a government department (e.g. a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, an employee of XYZ Inc., a postal worker
Postal worker
A postal worker is one who works for a post office, such as a mail carrier. In the U.S., postal workers are represented by the and the American Postal Workers Union, part of the AFL-CIO. In Canada, they are represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and in the United Kingdom by the...
).
Media
A casual survey of popular English-language titles indicates the prevalence and popularity of the insider concept in contemporary media:- AppleInsiderAppleInsiderAppleInsider is a news and rumor website that includes a forum for discussion of news stories and other community news.-Legal issues:In the late 1990s Apple successfully sued a John Doe from AppleInsider's boards with the username "Worker Bee" for revealing information on what would eventually...
- "Reports, inside information, and rumors." Web site for followers of Apple ComputerApple ComputerApple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
. - E! True Hollywood StoryE! True Hollywood StoryE! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and well-known public figures...
- "Want the inside scoop on Tinseltown's steamiest secrets? Watch E!'s Emmy-nominated documentary series for the real Story..." Highly popular US TV series. - The InsiderThe Insider (film)The Insider is a 1999 film based on the true story of a 60 Minutes television series segment, as seen through the eyes of a real tobacco executive, Jeffrey Wigand. The 60 Minutes story originally aired in November 1995 in an altered form because of objections by CBS’ then-owner, Laurence Tisch, who...
(1999) - Based-on-a-true-story, big budget Hollywood feature filmFeature filmIn the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
chronicles the efforts of Jeffrey WigandJeffrey WigandJeffrey S. Wigand is a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson in Louisville, Kentucky, who worked on the development of reduced-harm cigarettes...
a tobacco industryTobacco industryThe tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any warm, moist environment, which means it can be farmed on all...
whistle-blower and a failure to report at CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
.