HC 1 - February 7, 2023 - Introduction, utopian and dystopian views on media
infiltration
This course focuses on the challenges we deal with while facing new media. In the last
decade, we have seen changes happening in the media landscape:
● How we entertain and inform ourselves
● How we interact
● How we buy/consume
Our news and media consumption had changed. Traditional media consumption has been
digitized.
● There has been a decline in consumption through traditional means of media like
television or printed media.
● There has been an increase in new media, like online and social media.
There have always been utopian and dystopian perspectives on these changes:
● Utopia: a community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect
qualities for its citizens. Functions of an utopian drive:
○ It leads to optimism about the future, it gives people hope and makes them
more optimistic.
○ A strong belief in technological developments can be seen as a driving
and empowering source for society (societal function).
○ This idea of a bright future can be a reason to invest in technological
developments for policy makers.
○ It can lead to a cultural change toward individuation and individual
empowerment.
● Dystopia: a community or society that is undesirable or frightening.
Industrial revolution: a rapid major change in an economy marked by the general
introduction of power-driven machinery or by an important change in the prevailing types and
methods of use of such machines.
We can distinguish four industrial revolutions:
● The First Industrial Revolution (1760-1820) introduced machinery into the world of
craftsmanship and made mass production possible due to the invention of the steam
engine. Far distance travels were also more possible due to steam ships and trains.
● The Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914), also called the Technological
Revolution, saw the introductions of electricity and steel. This led to the inventions of
light bulbs, the car, photography, telegraphy, airplanes, radio and film.
● The Third Industrial Revolution (1969-), also called the Digital Revolution,
focused on the introduction of several inventions that would change how people
would and could communicate with one another.
● The Fourth Industrial Revolution (2012-) is up for debate, but most people
distinguish this revolution for its introduction of highly advanced technologies such as
robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, 3D printing, etc.
This all begs the question: is our relationship with (media) technology positive/negative?
,HC 2 - February 8, 2023 - An introduction to privacy
We cannot speak about privacy in general terms because there are many factors influencing
this.
General ideas of privacy are defined by…
● Culture, it is perceived differently around the world. Some cultures are more
welcoming, some are more reserved. This is recognizable in behavior, but also in
architecture (sizes of windows).
○ Uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which a society, or group relies on
social norms, rules, and procedures to minimize the unpredictability of future
events. It’s not the same as privacy concern but it really closely relates to it: a
need for privacy or a fear of privacy invasion.
● Time, the idea of privacy has evolved over time. We now have regulations (General
Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, EU law) and we see a rapid change in how
(un)comfortable we feel at being exposed to or by something. Like public nudity (we
used to have public bath houses).
● Individuals, all humans, have a different way of approaching privacy. Some are
more comfortable with being exposed, others are not.
Theoretical perspectives: Westin (political-scientific), Altman (psychological), Petrino
(communicational):
Westin (1967): political-scientific approach. He saw privacy as something that describes
how people interact with each other or how societies treat their people. He looked at it as a
human right.
Westin looked at the function of privacy, why people need it.
● Privacy is a basic need which helps us adjust to day-to-day interpersonal interaction.
Using Maslow’s pyramid of human needs to be alive, privacy to him was an
essential part of a human's need for safety.
● Privacy is a dynamic process, we regulate privacy in a group of people or society so
as to serve momentary needs and role requirements.
● Privacy is a non-monotonic thing, there is such a thing as both too much and not
sufficient privacy. More is not necessarily better.
● Privacy is a claim, something people are entitled to. Individuals, groups, or
institutions are entitled to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent
information about them is communicated to others.
,Westin’s purposes of privacy: why privacy is important to people to thrive, be happy., what
it is for, what goals it serves.
● Personal autonomy: people need to be autonomous in order to develop. This is not
possible without making their own decisions. We must be in control of how private we
are, what we do and do not want to share.
○ Not being manipulated.
○ Realization of individual choices.
○ Personal development.
○ Stable relationships.
● Emotional release: expressing yourself without others to interfere with you. You
need to be able to express emotions without the control of others. Privacy helps us to
ventilate our emotions.
○ Freedom from roles and outside expectations.
○ Opportunity to relax, let go, escape from stress and be “oneself” and able to
express anger, grief, frustration, etc.
● Self evaluation: to take the time to reflect on your actions, you need to be able to do
this without feeling controlled or monitored. You should be able to process and
evaluate information on your own.
○ Freedom to think, process information and make plans.
○ Process and evaluate information.
○ Make or change plans.
○ Be creative.
● Limited and protected boundaries: the ability to decide for your own who has
access to information about you. People need to be in control of who knows what
about them. What to share, with whom, and when.
Westin’s states of privacy focus on how privacy can be achieved.
● Observation/(social) interaction:
○ Solitude: no observation from others, being completely alone and free to be
yourself on your own.
○ Intimacy: not out in the open, a state where you are with a small group of
people with whom you have a strong connection. A state of trust.
● Identification/protection from others:
○ Reserve: the right to decide what to share and what not.
○ Anonymity: the right not to be identified
Altman (1975): psychological approach. He was interested in what function privacy has to
people, what happens if we live in total isolation or total exposure, why is it so important to
us as human beings? Not focusing on power structures but psychological: why the regulation
of privacy is good for human beings, why it is important to be able to change levels of
privacy.
“Privacy is a selective control of access to the self or to one’s group”
Privacy regulation theory: theory to understand why individuals alternate between states of
sociality and solitude. Privacy is a selective control of access to self or to one’s group.
, The privacy regulation theory defines five elements of privacy:
1. Dynamic process: individuals regulate what they do or do not want to share
differently, depending on the situational or social context. It is not a given, right or
state, it’s something you constantly are actively trying to control and regulate.
2. Individual vs. group levels: individuals perceive their own privacy differently from
that of their community/family.
3. Desired vs. actual level: we are constantly negotiating between what we see as a
desired and an actual level of privacy. The amount of privacy a human wants might
be higher or lower than they have in a given context.
4. Non-monotonic: more privacy is not always good. There is an optimal level of
privacy given the situation/context you're in. It goes back to your ability to monitor the
level of privacy you have. There is a sweet spot where we are comfortable sharing.
a. Stranger on the train: sharing intimacy, telling thoughts, can be easy if you
don’t know someone.
b. Sauna principal (Teubner & Flath): you are more comfortable going to a
sauna with people you are very close with or people you don’t know.
5. By-directional (inwards and outwards): individuals might have different
sensitivities for their actions towards others' privacy than towards their own.
a. Parental intrusion, a need to protect your children can make a parent
disregard the privacy of their child. However, the other way around the child
needs to respect the privacy of its parents (in the bedroom). There comes a
point where the parental intrusion or relation needs to be renegotiated.
Petrino (2002): communicative approach. He was Interested in how people try to make
rules for privacy in interactions, so looking at boundaries and regulations. For example
children growing up, becoming autonomous adults.
The Communication privacy management theory, originally known as Communication
Boundary Management: thinking about privacy in terms of boundaries.
● Using the ideas of Altman (privacy is the selective control of access to self), she
says it all has to do with the ability to control our boundaries.
● We need to regulate these boundaries we put between ourselves and others.
● We need to be in control of the information about ourselves that we share or that is
shared by others.
● Thick boundary: “No-one else can know about this”
● Thin/permeable boundary: trusting others in treating your information according to
your standards.
From physical privacy to information privacy: according to Smith, Dinev & Xy (2011), one of
the big shifts in how we understand and measure privacy has been progressively speaking
less about physical privacy (sharing things, space), and more about information privacy
and online activity.
Critical note: we tend to meet our disclosure motives but there is a lot of research that
shows we are not that self-aware when we post something online. We are not aware of our
online audience.
