Undressing with the Lights On: Surveillance and The Naked Society in a Digital Era

Specht, D. 2017. Undressing with the Lights On: Surveillance and The Naked Society in a Digital Era. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture. 12 (3), pp. 78-90. https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.268

TitleUndressing with the Lights On: Surveillance and The Naked Society in a Digital Era
TypeJournal article
AuthorsSpecht, D.
Abstract

In a year when the United States, under Trump, has scrapped their Internet Privacy Law (Lee, 2017), all the while decrying, in an ill-informed manor, wiretapping (MacAskill, 2017); the UK’s Home Secretary, Amber Rudd has called for an equally ill-informed backdoor to WhatApp (Haynes, 2017); and German parents are told to destroy their children’s dolls amid spying fears (Oltermann, 2017), it perhaps seems strange to turn to a book published in 1964 to help understand the world around us. While it is important to recognize that the world is somewhat different to the 1960’s, and that Snowden, in particular, shed a new light on the way in which the war on terror has driven securitization (Lyon, 2015). To really to fully understand the modern surveillance state, it is imperative to examine the ongoing conditions of its birth (Jorden, 2015). Huxley, Orwell, and Foucault classically provide the foundation for much of the historical narratives in surveillance studies (Marx, 2016), but the 1960s provided a political climate that would ensure surveillance and privacy would become deeply embedded in our capitalist society and commercial social media platforms (Dwyer, 2016). Eisenhower had solidified the notion of the military-industrial complex in the minds of a nation through his farewell address in 1961; George Axelrod’s neo-noir Cold War thriller, The Manchurian Candidate, with its brainwashing, false memories and stark politics, hit cinemas a year later, bringing McCarthyism to the silver screen. Then, within a matter of months, the breaking of the Cambridge Five spy ring, and Kim Philby’s defection to the USSR provided a real life Cold War thriller the likes of which Hollywood could only dream. It was against this backdrop, and the extreme right wing politics of Barry Goldwater, which dominated the 1964 Presidential race, that Packard published The Naked Society. So, while the internet and concerns about Google and Facebook’s privacy agreements were a long way from Packard’s reality, the past was not an innocent place, and it is perhaps because of this that Packard’s 1964 book, The Naked Society, reads with more than an air of day-to-day familiarity.

KeywordsSurveillance, Privacy, Packard, Digital
JournalWestminster Papers in Communication and Culture
Journal citation12 (3), pp. 78-90
ISSN1744-6716
Year2017
PublisherUniversity of Westminster Press
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.268
Publication dates
Published31 Oct 2017
LicenseCC BY 4.0

Related outputs

Mapping the Unmappable: Cartography at war
Specht, D. 2024. Mapping the Unmappable: Cartography at war. Livingmaps Review. 16, pp. 1-17.

Doctoral writing through a trajectorial lens: an exploratory study on challenges, strategies and relationships
Gimenez, J., Paterson, R. and Specht, D. 2024. Doctoral writing through a trajectorial lens: an exploratory study on challenges, strategies and relationships. Higher Education. 87, pp. 491-508. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-023-01019-7

MODEL REPORT: INFORM Risk Index
Specht, D. 2023. MODEL REPORT: INFORM Risk Index. UN OCHA.

Future Trends in Geospatial Information Management (3rd Edition)
Specht, D. 2023. Future Trends in Geospatial Information Management (3rd Edition). UN-GGIM.

Geospatial Technologies in Archaeology
Kent, A.J. and Specht, D. 2023. Geospatial Technologies in Archaeology. in: Kent, A.J. and Specht, D. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Geospatial Technologies and Society Routledge.

Geospatial Technology and the Sustainable Development Goals
Specht, D. 2023. Geospatial Technology and the Sustainable Development Goals. in: Kent, A.J. and Specht, D. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Geospatial Technology and Society Abingdon, Oxon Routledge.

Between the Office and the Coffee Shop: A examination of spaces used for research degree supervision
Specht, D. 2022. Between the Office and the Coffee Shop: A examination of spaces used for research degree supervision. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. 23. https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi23.828

Frack-Off: Social media fights against Fracking in Argentina
Raftopoulos, M. and Specht, D. 2022. Frack-Off: Social media fights against Fracking in Argentina. Environmental Communication. 16 (5), pp. 598-611. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2021.2018002

Environmental Movements and Digital Media
Kavada, A. and Specht, D. 2022. Environmental Movements and Digital Media. in: Routledge Handbook of Environmental Movements Routledge.

The Technopolitics of Mapping Dar es Salaam: An examination of the technological and political motivations of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team / La tecnopolítica de la cartografía de Dar es Salaam: Un examen de las motivaciones tecnológicas y políticas del equipo humanitario OpenStreetMap
Specht, D. 2021. The Technopolitics of Mapping Dar es Salaam: An examination of the technological and political motivations of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team / La tecnopolítica de la cartografía de Dar es Salaam: Un examen de las motivaciones tecnológicas y políticas del equipo humanitario OpenStreetMap. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie VI, Geografía. 14, pp. 193-216. https://doi.org/10.5944/etfvi.14.2021.30644

Cézanne the Cartographer
Specht, D. 2021. Cézanne the Cartographer. in: Cartographies of the Imagination London pp. 90-91

Developing Belief in Online Teaching: Efficacy and Digital Transformation
Specht, D., Chatterton, P., Hartley, P. and Saunders, G. 2021. Developing Belief in Online Teaching: Efficacy and Digital Transformation. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice. 9 (2), pp. 68-76. https://doi.org/10.14297/jpaap.v9i2.486

The Self(ie) in the Anthropocene
Specht, D. and Snyder, C. 2021. The Self(ie) in the Anthropocene. in: Harper, E.T. and Specht, D. (ed.) Imagining Apocalyptic Politics in the Anthropocene Routledge.

The Media and Communications Study Skills Student Guide
Specht, D. 2019. The Media and Communications Study Skills Student Guide . London University of Westminster Press.

The Issue of Blogging: Using Visual Network Analysis to go Beyond Self-reporting Studies of Blogging
Specht, D. 2019. The Issue of Blogging: Using Visual Network Analysis to go Beyond Self-reporting Studies of Blogging. Journal of Learning and Teaching in the Digital Age. 4 (2), pp. 10-24.

Crowdsourced Mapping in Crisis Zones: Collaboration, Organisation and Impact
Hunt, A. and Specht, D. 2019. Crowdsourced Mapping in Crisis Zones: Collaboration, Organisation and Impact. Journal of International Humanitarian Action. 4 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41018-018-0048-1

Did You Find the World or Did You Make it Up? Media, Communications and Geography in the Digital Age
Specht, D. 2018. Did You Find the World or Did You Make it Up? Media, Communications and Geography in the Digital Age. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture. 13 (2), pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.298

Geographic Protest: The Role of Counter-Mapping in Supporting Campaigns Against Large-Scale Extractive Projects in Colombia: The Case of La Colosa
Specht, D. 2018. Geographic Protest: The Role of Counter-Mapping in Supporting Campaigns Against Large-Scale Extractive Projects in Colombia: The Case of La Colosa. Livingmaps Review. 5.

From the cartographic gaze to contestatory cartographies
Specht, D. 2018. From the cartographic gaze to contestatory cartographies. in: Bargués-Pedreny, P., Chandler, D. and Simon, E. (ed.) Mapping and Politics in the Digital Age Routledge.

Neogeography, development and human rights in Latin America.
Specht, D. 2018. Neogeography, development and human rights in Latin America. in: Raftopoulos, Malayna and Powęska, Radosław (ed.) Natural Resource Development and Human Rights in Latin America: State and Non-state Actors in the promotion and opposition to extractivism activities London University of London.

Teaching vicarious trauma in the journalism classroom: an examination of educational provision in UK Universities
Specht, D. and Tsilman, J. 2018. Teaching vicarious trauma in the journalism classroom: an examination of educational provision in UK Universities. Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies . 7 (2), pp. 407-427. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms.7.2.407_1

Cajamarca’s rejection of mining in Colombia was also a victory for social media and social mapping
Specht, D. 2017. Cajamarca’s rejection of mining in Colombia was also a victory for social media and social mapping. LSE.

Book Review: Surveillance after Snowden
Doug Specht 2017. Book Review: Surveillance after Snowden. Media, Culture & Society. 39 (1), pp. 138-140. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716667068

Lore in the Time of Cholera
Specht, D. 2017. Lore in the Time of Cholera. Maplines. 31 (3), pp. 4-5.

Topping up the Trust Fund: restoring public confidence in science (part 3 of a 3 part article)
Specht, D. 2017. Topping up the Trust Fund: restoring public confidence in science (part 3 of a 3 part article). Times Higher Education. 9 - 15 February 2017.

Gold, power, protest: Digital and social media and protests against large-scale mining projects in Colombia
Specht, D. and Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. 2017. Gold, power, protest: Digital and social media and protests against large-scale mining projects in Colombia . New Media & Society. 19 (12), pp. 1907-1926. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816644567

Future trends in geospatial information management: the five to ten year vision (2nd Edition)
Specht, D. 2016. Future trends in geospatial information management: the five to ten year vision (2nd Edition). UN-GGIM.

Book Review: The Data Revolution: Big Data, Open Data, Data Infrastructures and their Consequences
Specht, D. 2015. Book Review: The Data Revolution: Big Data, Open Data, Data Infrastructures and their Consequences. Media, Culture & Society. 37 (7), pp. 1110-1111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443715596318

The Future of GI in the 3rd Sector, part of AGI Foresight Report 2020
Specht, D. 2010. The Future of GI in the 3rd Sector, part of AGI Foresight Report 2020. The Association for Geographic Information.

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/q1858/undressing-with-the-lights-on-surveillance-and-the-naked-society-in-a-digital-era


Share this

Usage statistics

324 total views
239 total downloads
These values cover views and downloads from WestminsterResearch and are for the period from September 2nd 2018, when this repository was created.