Surveillance and Citizenship
Channel: MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Date: 2016-04-20

Digital technologies have exponentially expanded the power of government and corporations to keep tabs on citizens. But citizens in turn are exploiting new technologies to expose the activities of governments, companies and even each other. How does the persistence and ubiquity of surveillance in our digitizing world affect what it means to be a citizen?

"Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power" author Sandra Braman, "Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies" author Susan Landau and University of California, Santa Barbara professor Marcos Novak discussed whether our emerging condition of constant surveillance encourages individuals to curtail how they speak and act -- or to offer more information. MIT Center for Civic Media director Ethan Zuckerman moderated.