SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 453-4

ISSUES IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY:

The Age of Surveillance - Suspicion, Risk, and Control

Prerequisites:

75 credit hours including CMNS 253 and 362.

Overview:

This course will examine the overall historical and social development of the surveillance society. With popular notions of Big Brother dominating our perception and understanding of current surveillance practices, there is a pressing need to better understand the nature of surveillance as well as where and how the individual plays a role in this increasingly coordinated realm. The use of surveillance, because of the much publicized potential benefits it may generate, can be a seductive offer. The eyes of CCTV can tempt the local shop owner and regional government while Internet travel tracking tools and active badges finds enthusiasm among office managers. Forms of monitoring and surveillance can potentially be found in almost every aspects of one’s daily life, but this should not automatically generate a sense of paranoia. Instead it should spark critical discussion. This course will help students develop an understanding of surveillance. How can surveillance be both constraining and enabling? What do the roles of suspicion and risk play? What role does politics play? Have we really reached the end of privacy? Can surveillance be resisted? What is the future of surveillance?

Throughout the course we will be covering various issues directly related to different forms of surveillance. In addition to a historical and theoretical grounding of surveillance, students will consider the following issues while carrying out debates and discussions on: databases and data images; identity concerns; genetic monitoring and screening; video surveillance; privacy rights; smart cards; workplace surveillance; social control; Panoptic principles; the information society; consumer privacy concerns; voyeurism; and surveillance in popular culture.


Required Readings:

David Lyon and Elia Zureik (eds.), Computers, Surveillance, & Privacy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. [ISBN 0-8166-2653-7 (paperback)]
Ann Cavoukian and Don Tapscott, Who Knows: Safeguarding Your Privacy in a Networked World. Toronto: Random House, 1995. [ISBN 0-394-22472-8]

In addition to the above books, students will be required to read online material plus other material which will be made available during the course, which will include: Foucault, Giddens, Webster, Nock, Brin, and others.


Assignments and Distribution of Marks:

Debates - 30%
TermPaper - 30%
Group Project/Presentation - 40%

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will also follow Policy T10.02 with respect to "Intellectual Honesty" and "Academic Discipline" (see the current calendar, General Regulations Section.)