Media and Surveillance

After today's class lead by Dr. McLaren, Michel Faucault's Panopticon started making more sense. In his description of the prison, and this idea of the "panoptic mechanism", Faulcault describes the role of power being a "model of function[ality]" and as "political technology". We see this in our society as social norms are changing, and therefore the power shifts between those who hold up that "social norm". Dr. McLaren took this further by saying Faucault saw people as "docile bodies", wanting to conform or fit into that norm. Meaning, as long as one thinks he or she is being watched, one will therefore monitor himself/herself. This type of surveillance is even more prevalent today with the new technologies. Only a little bit more than a decade ago, those who had the knowledge of the new technologies who the creators of media, news, etc. Today, however, technologies have become more accessible, making civil society able to create whatever they please. For instance, in class youtube was mentioned. This site functions as a place for just about anybody to create or post any type of video for the internet world to see. Another great example took place after the Tsunami that hit off of India a few years ago. By use of their picture phones, citizen journalists were the ones who were informing the world first hand what was going on after this catastrophic natural disaster that made it impossible to anyone trying to get there. 

It is technologies like this that have expanded the 'system of surveillance', allowing not just the government to keep tabs on you (or even not to, but to create a notion to think that you are being supervised), but also, just about anybody, your peers, family, even strangers now have more access to information about you.