Dataveillance and Consumer Discipline was probably my favourite topic out of this module mainly because we were assigned to do it for our presentation and I was able to research into the topic much more closely and in depth.
During our presentation, we talked about the actual meaning of dataveillance, data quantification and applied dataveillance examples and shared them with the class. One of the most interesting things I learnt during my research was that, from birth, or even beforehand, we are monitored and there is data being collected about us. Even in utero, we have ultrasound images and information and it continues from there.
Sadowski (2017) thought it would be interesting to create “snapshots” of what future dataveillance might be like and it was quite a thought-provoking concept as this ‘idea’ of the future seemed quite over-the-top and scary. He mentioned that “the aim is for people and places to be totally monitored, measured and managed” which means that a sense of freedom within humans get lost. This is because ‘security’ and ‘surveillance’ is essentially put in place because they are trying to eliminate risk and danger.
Another interesting thing that was mentioned was the court-case related to Mark Zuckerberg and how he leaked the information of millions of people to Cambridge Analytica. This riled up a debate in class where everyone got involved and stated their opinions which was really useful as it meant that everyone was paying attention and learning about the topic of dataveillance through interaction.
Finally, we did a little class quiz to see whether or not people noticed the dataveillance that surrounds them every single day. After gathering data about the surveillance cameras in the library, we asked how many cameras the class thought there were in the whole library and everybody guessed that there were more than 100, when in actual fact, there are only 24 cameras altogether in the whole library.
Bibliography:
Sadowski, J. (2017), “Access Denied: Snapshorts Of Exclusion And Enforcement In The Smart City”, in Our Digital Rights To The City (Meatspace Press), pp. 6-11 <https://ia601900.us.archive.org/25/items/OurDigitalRightsToTheCity/Our%20Digital%20Rights%20to%20the%20City.pdf> [Accessed 8 April 2018]
Image Reference:
https://www.istockphoto.com/gb/photos/digital-identity-loupe-and-computer-screen-with-binary-code?excludenudity=true&sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=digital%20identity%20loupe%20and%20computer%20screen%20with%20binary%20code
Written and Published by Raha Salehi.
In Monday’s lecture and seminar, we learnt that Terry Flew (2005: 21, 25, 26) believed that there is a three layered model of media, the object/tool used, the content/services of what can be done using these tools, and the practices, which is how and what we use these tools for.
In today’s society, especially in first world countries, almost everybody has access to this ‘object’, otherwise known as laptops, phones and watches, etc… Everybody I know, including myself, use their phones to access apps such as Snapchat and Facebook, in order to communicate with others. This is a perfect example of Flew’s 3 layered model, as it can be applied to almost everything.
As well as this, the seminar was extremely interesting as we began a slight debate about whether or not social media has become democratic, we came to the conclusion that although the masses of people could agree or disagree to something, there is not always necessarily a change or outcome that results from it. This led onto the topic of social shaping and how the users of technology are the ones shaping it. Although there is not always an outcome, there is certainly development that is occurring within the media because of the vast amount of users on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Advertisements on the internet causes a continuous flow of income and profit coming in and out of the media industry, resulting in having enough technological advances that improve and benefit users.
Although social media has certainly made is easy to contain amazing amounts of data in such a small space, it has been the reason for the lack of the physical, interactive human.
Bibliography:
Flew, T. (2005). New Media: An Introduction. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.21, 25, 26.
Image Reference:
http://2016.phillytechweek.com/events/technology_and_social_change–the_new_digital_civil_rights_movement
Written and Published by Raha Salehi.
In today’s lecture, I learnt that analogue media is essentially the opposite of digital media, in the sense that everything is stored in a physical form. Examples of analogue media are print newspapers, or even your own voice, as these are contained and produced via a physical source.
Limitations of analogue media, including high expenses and capacity limitations, resulted in the development of digital media. Technology reached an all time high because innovators created a way in which digital processing data shares the same format, therefore image, sound and data is now able to be accessed anywhere, through devices like smartphones, smartwatches and any other gadget that can contain digital content.
Additionally, I was able to retain knowledge on how the new digital world overcomes nearly all the limitations than analogue previously had. By having my phone with me at all times, I know that everything is easily accessible, and the speed of my every-day life and work has increased dramatically. However, one of the downsides to modern technology, is that there “is likely to be a diminishing need for labour” (Dutton, 2004:26) as employers now look for technological skills within many fields of work.
In our seminar, we spent the lesson debating whether anyone is ever offline. I believe we’re never really offline, because within digital media, everything is infinite. In the past, things had limits because media, eg. films and paintings, were only ever created by professionals however now, digital media allows amateur media creators to release works that stem from bigger productions, such as fan bases creating stories or paintings based on their favourite film or band. This enables data to be infinite.
Bibliography:
Dutton, W. (2004). Social Transformation in an Information Society: Rethinking Access to You and the World. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, p.26.
Image reference:
https://bgreider.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/mobile_phone_business_technology_iot_network_thinkstock_484224025-100468715-primary-idge.jpg?w=620
Written and Published by Raha Salehi.
