Week 6: Panoptic
Panics
Introduction
It is very easy to think that Panopticon is just a modern
thing. Its practice can be dated back to
the late 17th century how a particular tower serves as a medium
through which a watcher can secretly spy people and they in turn can watch some
of the spies. (Michel, Foucault. 1977:207) whereas, the proliferation of new
media especially in western countries had also brought the questions of
surveillance and privacy as individuals
engage with the digital world on a daily basis. (Lecture12/11/2013).Additionally,
some concepts which will help for more understanding of this topic were
mentioned in class and they include:
·
Everyware
·
Cyber Warfare
The concept, Everyware deals extensively on how computerization had mainly cease to be
restricted to PCs alone but it had greatly being shaped in the socio-cultural
society. (Adam, Greenfield. 2006:11).
Cyber Warfare on the other hand talks about the consequences
that come when modern technology is used in the negative way as in the case of
the Israelis against the Syrians with the aid of digital jets. In addition, the
world and most especially the developed nations that are very exposed to these
sets of modern facilities will keep facing hacking on social networks, space
wars and the likes. (Richard, A. C. 2010).
In another vein, some critical philosophers who contributed
largely for a broader view on this
subject matter were also mentioned in class. The two among others are:
·
Flew, T. (2008:430) describes the adoption of
high tech to the extent that society can hardly function without it and,
·
Singer, P.W. (2009:60) highlighted that fact
that drones are fast taking the place of human beings in space battles is simply
because of their flexible nature and the help of physical science.
Having said these, the critical question now is: are there
reasons for technology to still be embraced by the human race on in future?, answering
this question in the technological point of view, the prospects of modern media
in the future are very high in the sense that proofs had already shown from the president of the United State how he
is embarking on the multiplication of fighting equipments for defense in the case of any and/or anticipated war that
might come up as a result of the long
accumulated government and political policies clashes and other related issues.
Lecture (12/11/2013), (Bickernton, Ian J. 2008) and (Mulrine, Anna 2012) but on
the contrary, another researcher asked if ‘humans respond through some forms of
artificial manipulation in information management or, can the actions of an
individual be as a result of some external control? .This question alone had
cleared the air the machines no matter what they can do, will never be compare
to human beings. (Hubert L. Dreyfus 1992:285).
More so, the online voting during election is one big factor
that will help technology be obtainable in the future because society is
already filled with lots of activities and any chance to reduce some will
always be a welcome development. This new system of casting votes had not only
prevented people from standing on long queues but also reduce accident rate due
to the display of cars on the road on
such days especially in African countries, however, it was claimed that digital
data collation is not error-free when it comes to result summation. In fact, it
is risky. (Peter, G.1995:93).
In another instance, if human existence is surrounded by
interaction, communication and information sharing, then it will be very
correct to say that social networking will always see better days. More new
ways to enhance communication will keep emerging. Although, this point was also
opposed by the hacker concept which entails the illegal attacks on the accounts
of users of social networks (Simpson, M.T 2011:324-235). Likewise (Hight,
Craig.2012) pointed out one striking disadvantage of the digital age to say,
any information deleted Implies that it might not be remembered again.
Economically, hypermedia is again brilliant in helping Small-medium scale
Enterprises (SMEs) particularly online
to advertise and sell products without huge capital or shops, yet as people,
corporation etc depend ever more on cyber space, concerns about the safety and
privacy of information therefore remains
worrisome. (William, Stallings 2009:42). Nevertheless, there is now war against
the threat to privacy of individuals by the civil activists. (Simpson,
Garfinkel. 1995:117)
To put this differently, the easy accessibility of academic
materials via the web is a landmark that everybody will want to recognize. This
had bridged the gap between the rich and poor and a boost to researchers as
knowledge is at its peak but Hubert, D. (1992:288) again reiterated again saying,
‘the contents of an electronic device can be accessed only if a user knows how
to log in and how to surf the net.
Finally, the benefits of internet technology in personal
self-realization, actualization, development and advancement cannot be
over-emphasized meanwhile in the days of (Foucault, M. 1977:104), digital
machinery were used as a tool to punish people.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that the whole essence of
new media is to replace the former style of information sharing in newspaper
with digital files, dynamites with drones and electromagnets with radars.(Flew,
Tarry.2008:2). Based on this, it is recommended that reasonable energy be
tilted towards applying new media applications positively rather than otherwise
so as to eliminate to a large extent; if not all the factors causing panoptic
panics globally. An understanding of the multi-faceted nature of the multimedia
and the differences in personal histories as regards the knowledge and usage of
both hard and software will also sure be a big remedy to panoptic panics in the
society at large.(Andy, Finney et al 1999:8), (Hier Sean.P.(2012).
Possible Literature
Avenues: Books and Journal in and outside UoB Library.
Possible Multimedia:
ATM
Bibliography:
Bickerton, I.J.
& Hagan, K.J. (2008) 'The us and the unintended consequences of war', History Today, 58 (1), pp.14-21.
Dreyfus, H.L.
& Dreyfus, H.L. (1992) What
computers still can't do : A critique of artificial reason / Hubert L.Dreyfus. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,
c1992.
England, E. &
Finney, A. (1999) Managing
multimedia: Project management for interactive media. Harlow: Addison-Wesley; 2nd ed.
Flew, T.New
media: An introduction. South
Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press; 3rd ed.
Foucault, M.
(1991) Discipline and punish:
The birth of the prison. London
:Penguin Books.
Garfinkel, S.
(1995) PGP: Pretty good
privacy / simson Garfunkel. Sebastopol,
CA: O'Reilly & Associates, c1995.
Greenfield, A.Everyware:The
dawning age of ubiquitous computing. Berkeley,
CA :New Riders.
Hire, S.P., Lett,
D., Walby, K. & Smith, A. (2011) 'Beyond folk devil resistance: Linking
moral panic and moral regulation', Criminology
& Criminal Justice: an International Journal, 11 (3), pp.259.
Hight, C. (2012) Mayer-schonberger, viktor, delete:
The virtue of forgetting in the digital age.(book review).
Mulrine, A.
(2013) Uncertainty over how US
military intervention in Syria would end.(USA).
Neumann. (1995) Computer-related risks / peter G.
Neumann. New York, N.Y. :ACM
Press ; Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, c1995.
Simpson, M.T.
(2006) Hands on ethical
hacking and network defense /. United
Kingdom: Thomson Course Technology.
Stallings, W.Business data
communications /. Upper
Saddle River, N.J. :Pearson/Prentice Hall; 6th ed. Website of the War
between Israelis and Syrians:
