The idea of privacy is not new to many people and was generally through of as a good thing until the government tried to convince us otherwise. Using the work of Michal Foucault and Noam Chomsky we see that the idea of mass surveillance for good is skewed and is being used for power and leverage over the population. I believe mass surveillance is an issue to be concerned about and through evidence presented in Glenn Greenwald’s TED talk on privacy.
Glenn Greenwald’s TED talk entitled Why Privacy Matters opens a door to conversation about a major issue in North America today, the Internet and your privacy. Greenwald is more famously known for helping Edward Snowden publish documents that exposed the amount of domestic surveillance under the …show more content…
When people feel they are bing watched they no longer do what they usually would but instead make decisions that revolve around the idea of societal norms and expectations of what “good” people do, they conform and become compliant (Greenwald, 2014). Greenwald then goes on to explain the novel 1984 by George Orwell and how it can no longer be seen as an unrealistic dystopia. The main idea is 1984 is the idea that the government is always watching you, which Greenwald states has become a reality for North Americans today (Greenwald, 2014). Privacy is an ever-growing rarity in society today and just because someone values privacy does not make him or her automatically a bad person, this is the lesson stressed most by Greenwald throughout his talk.
Michel Foucault was a French philosopher concerned around a number of issues including discipline and the idea of Panopticism. Foucault speaks of discipline as a form of power, and compares it to old forms of power. The first category is the power of exclusion, which relates to the separation and exclusion of those deemed “undesirable” and enforces binary divisions such as good/evil, dangerous/harmless, and sane/insane (Foucault, 1995). We see …show more content…
Herman. Chomsky’s main focus is the media and how the media is no longer a free network of information but rather a business interested in making money by selling audiences to advertisers (Chomsky, 2002). Chomsky looks at 5 filters he believes are put on mainstream media and therefore make it impossible to produce completely unbiased information. The first filter Chomsky discusses is size and concentration of ownership; he states that due to the size and profit seeking nature of dominant media corporations create bias (Chomsky, 2002). Because mainstream media outlets are currently large corporations, information presented to the public is swayed in respect to their interests and protecting financial interests. The second filter is described as funding generated through advertising, advertising cuts down on cost of production and allows us to receive media at little to no real cost (Chomsky, 2002). Advertisers are not interested in information but rather audiences with buying power and want to avoid complex media that distracts from the “buying mood” and push corporate messages. The third filter is sourcing; large media corporations often get their sources from other large corporation’s with similar interests (Chomsky, 2002). Often government organizations are seen as credible because they are the government, and through their experts are able to maintain
Glenn Greenwald’s TED talk entitled Why Privacy Matters opens a door to conversation about a major issue in North America today, the Internet and your privacy. Greenwald is more famously known for helping Edward Snowden publish documents that exposed the amount of domestic surveillance under the …show more content…
When people feel they are bing watched they no longer do what they usually would but instead make decisions that revolve around the idea of societal norms and expectations of what “good” people do, they conform and become compliant (Greenwald, 2014). Greenwald then goes on to explain the novel 1984 by George Orwell and how it can no longer be seen as an unrealistic dystopia. The main idea is 1984 is the idea that the government is always watching you, which Greenwald states has become a reality for North Americans today (Greenwald, 2014). Privacy is an ever-growing rarity in society today and just because someone values privacy does not make him or her automatically a bad person, this is the lesson stressed most by Greenwald throughout his talk.
Michel Foucault was a French philosopher concerned around a number of issues including discipline and the idea of Panopticism. Foucault speaks of discipline as a form of power, and compares it to old forms of power. The first category is the power of exclusion, which relates to the separation and exclusion of those deemed “undesirable” and enforces binary divisions such as good/evil, dangerous/harmless, and sane/insane (Foucault, 1995). We see …show more content…
Herman. Chomsky’s main focus is the media and how the media is no longer a free network of information but rather a business interested in making money by selling audiences to advertisers (Chomsky, 2002). Chomsky looks at 5 filters he believes are put on mainstream media and therefore make it impossible to produce completely unbiased information. The first filter Chomsky discusses is size and concentration of ownership; he states that due to the size and profit seeking nature of dominant media corporations create bias (Chomsky, 2002). Because mainstream media outlets are currently large corporations, information presented to the public is swayed in respect to their interests and protecting financial interests. The second filter is described as funding generated through advertising, advertising cuts down on cost of production and allows us to receive media at little to no real cost (Chomsky, 2002). Advertisers are not interested in information but rather audiences with buying power and want to avoid complex media that distracts from the “buying mood” and push corporate messages. The third filter is sourcing; large media corporations often get their sources from other large corporation’s with similar interests (Chomsky, 2002). Often government organizations are seen as credible because they are the government, and through their experts are able to maintain