SCLG2629 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: The Power Elite, Panopticism, Panopticon
29 Oct 2018
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Week 6 power in the viewer society. Mills, c. wright (1957) the celebrities", pp. 71-93 in the power elite new york: oxford university. Mathieson, t. (1997) "the viewer society: michel foucault"s "panopticon" revisited", theoretical. How does power operate under panopticism and synopticism? (you can draw here on the idea of public recognition or the public gaze). Foucault (reader) referred to bentham"s prison model, the panopticon to capture the idea of the people being visible to the few. For foucault spectacular manifestations of power have been extinguished in the daily exercise of surveillance, where one never knows if one is being observed. The normalising gaze of panopticism produces subjectivity and self-control which disciplines people to fit into a democratic capitalist society, however for mathiesen we remain in our attitude unchanged, despite our behaviour. Mathieson reverses this idea in the model of mass media where the many watch the few, known as the synopticism.
