AHSS*1090 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Unintended Consequences, Culture Jamming, Martin Heidegger
Communication, Technology & Culture
Week 11: Ethical Dimensions of Technology
Reality Television as Surveillance
-Completely shifted the social meaning of surveillance
-Surveillance is no longer an infringement on privacy or means of control but
becomes a mediated spectacle
-Participants welcome the chance to part of the spectacle because it gives them
the opportunity to participate in production of media
-Reality TV shifts power to audience, the become active participants; participants
are the content
-Surveillance becomes entertainment
Surveillance and The Bachelor
-Longest and most successful reality romance show on television
-Surveillance is essential to constructing and ensuring authenticity
-Emotion displayed by participants can be judged authentic because it is so
strong and so real even though participants are aware of being filmed
-Women must display an appropriate amount of emotion in order to prove they
are vulnerable, but they also must remain consistent
-The ‘money shot’ and ‘confessional’
What About Trump?
-A different way of understanding his popularity:
-One appears most authentic when they are unable to stop from breaking
expected conventions
with strict parameters for behaviour
-Reality TV participants comfortable on camera are seen as authentic, even if
they’re unlikeable
Fake News
-A sign of the times: “Post truth was selected as the 2016 International word of the
year by Oxford dictionary”
-Promotional material disguised as news
-Intentionally false news reports
-Almost half of adults in the United States now use facebook news feeds to
access news
-How does facebook present news stories to its readers?
-What are filter bubbles? What is clickbait?
-Impact on the US Presidential Election remains debated
-Many stories very biased in favour of extreme agendas
-Types of fake news:
a. Disclosed sources
b. Anonymous sources
c. Bogus sources
Authenticate the source (host), Check out bona fides of the “contact us” page;
Vet author; Check out advertising links; Use search engine results to verify;
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Completely shifted the social meaning of surveillance. Surveillance is no longer an infringement on privacy or means of control but becomes a mediated spectacle. Participants welcome the chance to part of the spectacle because it gives them the opportunity to participate in production of media. Reality tv shifts power to audience, the become active participants; participants are the content. Longest and most successful reality romance show on television. Surveillance is essential to constructing and ensuring authenticity. Emotion displayed by participants can be judged authentic because it is so strong and so real even though participants are aware of being filmed. Women must display an appropriate amount of emotion in order to prove they are vulnerable, but they also must remain consistent. A different way of understanding his popularity: One appears most authentic when they are unable to stop from breaking expected conventions with strict parameters for behaviour.
