The New Media of Surveillance

The spread of new surveillance technologies is an issue of major concern for democratic societies. More ubiquitous and sophisticated monitoring techniques raise profound questions for the very possibility of individual autonomy and democratic government. Innovations in surveillance systems require equally innovative approaches for analyzing their social and political implications, and the field of critical communication studies is uniquely equipped to provide fresh insights. This book brings together the work of a number of critical communication scholars who take innovative approaches to examining the surveillance dimensions of new media technologies. The essays included in this volume focus on interactive networks, computer generated imagery, biometrics, and intelligent transport systems as sites where communication and surveillance have become virtually inseparable social processes. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Communication Review.