New Media Challenges Semester 2 - P4
Lecture 1: Introduction
Trends in media and media-use
- From push to pull: consumers choosing from large offering of media content
(YouTube, Blendle etc.)
- Dissolving media boundaries: browsing internet on phone, listen radio on laptop.
- Increasing interactivity: online multiplayer games, chat functions on webpages.
- Content creation by ‘consumers’: social media, writing reviews, blogs, vlogs,
Instagram and Facebook.
Two perspectives:
Utopia: a community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for
its citizen.
Dystopia: a community or society that is undesirable or frightening.
Functions of utopia worldview:
1. Optimism about the future
2. Strong belief in technological development
3. Push to invest in technological developments
4. Cultural change toward individuation and individual empowerment
3 or 4 industrial revolutions? For the sake of this story, we talk about 4 revolutions (including
the one we might be in right now)
1
,4th revolution:
Industrial revolution: definition
• First (1784): mechanical production, railroads and steam power
• Second (1870): mass production, electrical power and the advent of the assembly
line
• Third (1969): automated production, electronics and computers
• Fourth (now): artificial intelligence, big data, robotics and more to come
Lecture 2: An introduction to privacy
Privacy is defined by cultures
(It’s under the influence of cultural differences)
(E.g., Japanese government is more concerned with it, than the US)
Uncertainty avoidance
The extent to which a society, or group relies on social norms, rules and procedures to
minimize the unpredictability of future events
Privacy Is defined by times
(Back in the old days we had a different perception of privacy)
Privacy id defined by individuals
(You can view privacy really different from anyone else)
Three theoretical perspectives
1. Westin (1967) → Political-scientific approach: privacy in interaction with others
2. Altman (1975) → Psychological approach: privacy for the self (wellbeing and identity
regulation.
2
, 3. Petronio (2002) → Communication approach: privacy as information ownership and
sharing
Westin: privacy as a basic need
→ Privacy is a basic need which helps us adjust to day-to-day interpersonal interactions
Privacy is:
- A dynamic process (we regulate privacy as to
serve momentary needs and role
requirements)
- Non-monotonic (you can have such a thing as
too little, just enough, or not enough privacy)
Privacy is “the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when,
how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others)
Privacy has four purposes and four states
→ Purposes of privacy: functions of privacy (i.e., what is privacy for?)
- Personal autonomy
- Emotional release
- Self evaluation
- Limited and protected boundaries
→ States of privacy: means behind the functions (i.e., how can privacy be achieved)
- Solitude
- Reserve
- Intimacy
- Anonymity
Four purposes of privacy
(ignore the dart, was used just to point at the purpose he was talking about at that point)
Four states of privacy (left side = observation, right side = identification)
3
, Altman: Selective control of access to self
- Irwin Altman formulated the Privacy Regulation Theory, which aimed at
understanding why individuals alternate between states of sociality and solitude
- Privacy is “a selective control of access to the self or to one’s group”
Five elements of privacy:
1. Dynamic process: individuals regulate what
they (do or not) want to share differently,
depending on the situational or social context
2. Individuals vs Group level: individuals perceive
their own privacy differently from that of their
community/family
3. Desired vs Actual level: desired level of privacy
might be lower/higher than the one other
individuals have the given context
4. Non-Monotonic: there is such a thing as both
too much and not sufficient privacy
a. (E.g., AA meetings, a non-private place,
it can feel quite liberating to share, in
comparison to a private setting, there it
can be too much)
5. By-Directional (Inwards and Outwards): Individuals might have different sensitivities
for their actions towards others’ privacy and others’ actions towards them. (e.g., at a
restaurant, when you feel like others are overhearing you, then you can feel like this
is a breach of your privacy, while when you listen to the conversation of others, you
don’t feel like that) → often seen in parent-child relation, parents can enter your
room whenever, their house, but you can’t the other way around.
Petronio: communication privacy management
- Originally known as communication boundary management
- Privacy is “the selective control of access to the self” (Altman, 1975)
4
