Lecture8Review

=Class 8: Identity and Privacy= This is just a copy of of the Professor Jones powerpoint text to use as a reference/guideline, add any notes or links you may have that elaborates on his points for each heading.

toc

Identity and Privacy
• Mass media - mass audience - isolating perhaps but private • New media - emphasis on data structure, processing and content manipulation allows for individual expression - but also individual tracking

Trust Survey
• City TV, Toronto Star, CNN, Daily Show/Colbert Report, BBC most consulted sources • Daily Show most trusted of above (!), then City, Star, Colbert, BBC,CNN • Friends/family trusted source • Only 4 hours/week on news/information average (!)

Identity and Media
• Mass media - identity constructed in consumer terms, often vague • Niche media - a bit more structured but also certain identities privileged over others - e.g., 500 channel universe

Media Stereotyping
• Ethnic/visible minorities • (White Male) People of Privilege • Aboriginal peoples • Girls and Women • Gays/Lesbians • http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/index.cfm

Activity
• What types of stereotypes exist in media portrayal of these groups? • How do stereotypes influence media representation? • Examples of stereotype change - how, why?

Identity and New Media
• Possibility for identity construction and identity play (Turkle) • Creates perception of anonymity (but only perception?) where cues invoking stereotypes can be muted

But…
• Stereotypical representations still common • Gender stereotypes in video games (similar to comics - Lara Croft ex.) • Stereotype play in online chat examples

Privacy and Surveillance
• Individuated transactions can be and are monitored - new media make surveillance more efficient • Enforcement haphazard - both panopticon effect and simple logistics • Not just government but corporate - workplace surveillance and rights of workers to associate

Ex: face recognition analysis
• Technologies to scan and detect faces in a crowd • Preliminary systems already exist - potential uses in analysis of closed-circuit surveillance, forensic science, military/intelligence

Problems
• Abuse - who controls information? For what purposes is it collected? • Cross-referencing - links to biometrics? Banking data? Advertising? • Voyeurism from afar - violation of shared norms of public spaces • False sense of security - not “needle in haystack” technology, false positives, probability of loopholes

Privacy and 9/11
• American reaction to 9/11 swift and disturbing - USA Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act • Surveillance of communication and artefact alike; combined with secrecy in name of national security • USA and UK now rank near bottom on privacy and surveillance issues: [|http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347=x-347-545269]]