CMAF 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Substantivism, Instrumentalism, Technological Determinism

• School: University of Windsor
• Department: Communication, Media and Film
• Course: CMAF 1010
• Professor: Kyle Asquith

Document Summary

Surveillance the most important societal issue relating to communication technologies. Proliferation of internet based or internet connected services. Consider netflix: as internet-distributed television, netflix watches you as you watch. Or, (cid:272)o(cid:374)sider (cid:862)hello bar(cid:271)ie(cid:863): a(cid:374) i(cid:374)ter(cid:374)et (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:374)e(cid:272)ted toy, (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:374)e(cid:272)ti(cid:374)g (cid:448)ia (cid:449)ifi to a ser(cid:448)er so a child can have a conversation with barbie. Paralleling the proliferation of internet connected services and things is a proliferation of cameras in the last 10-15 years. Every google user is also a producer of information. Sophisticated user data derived from search, e-(cid:373)ail, do(cid:272)u(cid:373)e(cid:374)ts, (cid:373)aps, youtu(cid:271)e, (cid:862)okay. Digital enclosure concept: the process whereby activities formerly carried out beyond the monitoring capacity of the internet are enfolded into that virtual space. Human behaviours are not new, but tracking them is. Perso(cid:374)al data the (cid:374)e(cid:449) (cid:862)oil,(cid:863) a (cid:448)alua(cid:271)le resour(cid:272)e. Privacy concern #1 loss of privacy: with all of our o(cid:374)li(cid:374)e (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iours tra(cid:272)ked, (cid:449)e ha(cid:448)e lost pri(cid:448)a(cid:272)y, perhaps true, (cid:271)ut the least sophisti(cid:272)ated (cid:449)ay of (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:272)eptualizi(cid:374)g pri(cid:448)a(cid:272)y.