Living in Surveillance Society: From Regimes of Justification to Surveillance Realism

• In Event: Digital Surveillance and Citizenship

Abstract

This paper will present findings from the 18-month ESRC-funded project ‘Digital Citizenship and Surveillance Society: UK State-Media-Citizen relations after the Snowden leaks’ looking at media coverage and public knowledge regarding Snowden and digital surveillance. In particular, it will explore how digital surveillance has been justified in mainstream press coverage since the Snowden leaks and the extent to which these justifications have become internalized and accepted amongst the British public as part of a broader trend towards ‘surveillance realism’. In doing so, we will highlight the limited scope for meaningful citizen engagement in this context as questions of human rights, freedoms and public consent are structurally marginalized and obscured in mainstream debate and understanding of digital surveillance after the Snowden leaks.

Authors

• Lina Dencik, Cardiff U - JOMEC

• Arne Hintz, Cardiff U - JOMEC

• Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Cardiff U - JOMEC