Technology can control our lives. While we understood its purpose was to aid and streamline our lives, our reliance on these forms of convenience has slowly highlighted media dictators of our decision-making. Autonomy has become an increasing concern within the technological world, catalysed by companies’ corrupt morals and gluttony for wealth. “Every one of us who carries a camera attached to a mobile phone is an agent of surveillance” (Vaidhyanathan, 2022). Through tasks and discussions of COMM513 – Media, Technology and Society, not only is a deeper understanding of technology and its control developed, but discussions in class catalyse a wave of consciousness of technology and surveillance that allows us to act on our awareness and fight for a more aware future.
In week 8, we discussed Compulsion through the topic “The elephant in the room”. In which we analysed AI and the extremely relevant and powerful platform of “ChatGPT”. As a class we had discussions through the lens of social media, bringing forth the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”. I note “As this was brought up, people, including me, began to laugh and lose interest rather quickly”. My group discussed how when the documentary came out “all our parents wanted us to delete social media, with some parents even enforcing this”. Whilst my group complained about this, someone noted that “if you delete all social media, you fall behind in what’s relevant in life”. Which highlights that our relationship with technology has vastly changed. The key revelation of “The Social Dilemma” has brought to light that “If you are not paying for the product, then you are the product.” (Na, 2021) This became an extremely powerful point within our group discussions of social media, leading us to question “What can we do?” I highlight in my diary how “even though we are aware of how social media controls us because it ‘controls us’ there isn’t much that we can do to stop it.”
There is a fine line between convenience and dependence in regards to social media, a line which we are close to crossing. This brought us to our task. Rather than focus on social media, we were tasked to utilise a budding platform infamous for its control and usage of AI; Chat GPT. We were told to try to catch this platform in a lie, and thus prove our influence upon these services. I decided to try to convince the platform that I had been announced as the current Prime Minister of New Zealand; however, I quickly discovered a severe flaw in the AI. When prompting it with my new information, it stated that “As an AI language model, I do not have access to live news updates, but as of my knowledge cut-off date of September 2021, the Prime Minister of New Zealand was Jacinda Ardern.” While people across the world are utilising this platform in their lives, they are using a service that has no information after September 2021.
ChatGPT's response to being asked about current events
This platform does not know about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the current inflation crisis. (Lindsay, 2022) Thus I bring forth the ethical question in my diary: “Is it right to use a service that cannot process current events?” In the current political and social climate of the world, we are constantly evolving as a society to meet the societal norms of the time. However, this platform that over 100 million people use every month, (Hu, 2023) hasn’t developed from news stories in the past 20 months. While yes, platforms such as ChatGPT are crucial in environments where AI governs our lives, awareness must be brought to the public eye for the same reason. Additionally, “platforms have a political bias and, despite their discourse about innovation, openness, equality and democracy” (Buck & Plothe, 2019), thus we must also acknowledge the influence that these platforms have on our opinions to prevent ourselves from being influenced by our technology.
The Panopticon concept
The following week, we progressed onto Surveillance, focusing on the users’ use of technology and social media from a security standpoint. We analysed the “Panopticon”; a conceptual prison with a singular watchtower surrounded by individual cells. Our lecturers discussed that while the guard in the watchtower can see into every cell, no prisoners can see into the watchtower; thus they never know if they’re being watched. While conceptualised as a prison, it also applies to social media and the internet. As previously referenced, “Every one of us who carries a camera attached to a mobile phone is an agent of surveillance” (Vaidhyanathan, 2022). While we may not be aware of it, our endorsement of social media under the façade of convenience has led to this conceptual panopticon being actualised, with users never knowing what information they are giving away. We discussed as a class the various EULAs and T&Cs that we have agreed to, however, as I note in my diary; “not a single person admitted to ever reading through the actual terms and conditions that they were agreeing to”. Allhoff highlights how it is purely a marketing strategy “The sheer length and density of these documents virtually ensures that users do not read them” (Allhoff & Henschke, 2018). If articles that include this consent are hard to read, then consent is not truly achieved. By creating documents that are so dense with legal jargon and repetition, all desire to read these articles is voided, thus companies can insert loopholes inside, giving companies more information than needed.
Due to this, awareness of ‘informed consent’ is spreading, which emphasizes the user, rather than the product. Furthermore, I go on to note that “in my household, we have smart fridges, dishwashers, lights and personal assistants, so what information is process and collected by those?” The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a topic of concern over the past decade. IoT refers to technologically advanced devices in our homes that aid to make our lives more convenient and increase automation. (Allhoff & Henschke, 2018). While devices like smart fridges for example make our lives more convenient by supplying us with shopping lists and recipe books, Allhoff highlights “what sorts of information becomes available, and to whom, once we integrate our lives more thoroughly with the IoT?” (Allhoff & Henschke, 2018).
As we purchase more items to streamline our lives, we give up more and more privacy for the sake of convenience, which leads us to our group task. Instructed to create a media product that utilises the information of its users to make life more efficient, my group quickly ran into a problem, as I note: “We discovered that majority of apps utilise Facebook’s open source code “Open Graph”. This platform allows for the data of users to be streamlined across multiple platforms, (Vaidhyanathan, 2022) thus even if we wanted to create a product that benefitted the use of its users, it wouldn’t be able to do so without selling that vital information. So while our original idea of an app to keep medical reminders and info together would benefit millions of users, we would also risk sending that information off to other carriers to do with as they please.
TikTok highlighting how our constant surveilance is impacting us
Our final integral topic of discussion was sustainability. When introduced, my group questioned this topics’ relevance, asking “How does this tie into surveillance and technology”. Once our lecturers explained its relevance through the lens of media, we realised “Our lack of knowledge about the topic proved it as an extremely concerning point of interest”. Media controls our opinions of social issues. As Boykoff explains, “media portrayals possess great potential to influence reader perceptions and concern” (Boykoff, 2012). Largely due to our dependence on technology and media within our lives, the power that media outlets hold lies within their userbase as “People endorse whichever position reinforces their connection to others with whom they share important commitments” (Boykoff, 2012).
The Social Sphere as used by journalists
In class, we discussed sustainability through the lens of our phones. I highlight “when asked who knew where the components of our phones came from, there was silence. Whilst we depended on our mobiles every day, nobody knew where they originally came from”. We discussed how climate change coverage is the same. Whilst articles existed covering climate change, there was little to no urgency placed on these concepts. For effective articles to be produced, journalists process their articles through a concept known as the “Social Sphere”, as seen on the left (Boykoff, 2012). While it creates articles that are engaging to read, it also leaves the perception of an event up to the journalist’s opinion. “Mass media do damage by reducing issues of risk and expert-based scientific understanding to that of mere opinion.” (Boykoff, 2012).
While the state of these issues is extremely crucial, the ethical dilemma of sustainability lies within our relationship with the media itself. As we typically align ourselves with news outlets that have the same views as our own (Boykoff, 2012), there is a dysfunction between media coverage and our influence. Our task for the week was to create a poster that addresses an issue of sustainability. I settled on ‘fast. My diary highlights how “I knew my poster would be less impactful if I stated the facts, as we tend to ignore issues present to us,” (Baeza-Yates, 2018) “so I created the illusion of a sale to draw the user in”. The fact I have to allude to the problem through a promotional form of media further highlights the ethical concerns of our relationship with media.
Poster focused on 'fast fashion'
Throughout discussions and tasks of COMM513 – Media, Technology and Society, the dichotomy of technology and our relationship with media can be visualised through various forms that impact the audience. Through the newfound perception of these concepts, a healthier relationship can be created between user and technology which absolves the current parasitic relationship for a mutually beneficial one.
REFERENCES
Allhoff, F., & Henschke, A. (2018). The Internet of Things: Foundational ethical issues. The Internet of Things, 1–2, 55–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iot.2018.08.005
Baeza-Yates, R. (2018). Bias on the web. Communications of the ACM, 61(6), 54–61. https://doi.org/10.1145/3209581
Boykoff, M. (2012). Who speaks for the climate?: making sense of media reporting on climate change. Choice Reviews Online, 49(10), 49–5681. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.49-5681
Buck, A. M., & Plothe, T. (2019). Netflix at the Nexus: Content, Practice, and Production in the Age of Streaming Television. Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers.
Lindsay, J. M. (2022, December 16). Ten Most Significant World Events in 2022. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/blog/ten-most-significant-world-events-2022
Na, Y. (2021). Review IV: The Social Dilemma’s Dilemma: Challenging and Reproducing Social Media Myths. The Political Economy of Communication, 8(2). https://polecom.org/index.php/polecom/article/download/130/363
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2022). The Surveillance Machine. In Oxford University Press eBooks (pp. 54–78). https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190056544.003.0003
Baeza-Yates, R. (2018). Bias on the web. Communications of the ACM, 61(6), 54–61. https://doi.org/10.1145/3209581
Boykoff, M. (2012). Who speaks for the climate?: making sense of media reporting on climate change. Choice Reviews Online, 49(10), 49–5681. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.49-5681
Buck, A. M., & Plothe, T. (2019). Netflix at the Nexus: Content, Practice, and Production in the Age of Streaming Television. Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers.
Lindsay, J. M. (2022, December 16). Ten Most Significant World Events in 2022. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/blog/ten-most-significant-world-events-2022
Na, Y. (2021). Review IV: The Social Dilemma’s Dilemma: Challenging and Reproducing Social Media Myths. The Political Economy of Communication, 8(2). https://polecom.org/index.php/polecom/article/download/130/363
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2022). The Surveillance Machine. In Oxford University Press eBooks (pp. 54–78). https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190056544.003.0003