Surveillance and the Structural Transformation of Privacy

This article provides a conceptual and methodological outline for studying the social and political implications of digital surveillance, as it opens itself to journalists and media researchers. Digital surveillance yields a profound social transition, which can be tentatively called as “structural transformation of privacy”. We propose that the empirical analysis on this gradual and abstract process can proceed in two phases. Firstly, attention should be paid key stakeholders and their deeply conflicted positions on the issue of digital surveillance. Secondly, an analytical focus should be set on the dominant discursive principles and justifications that inform the suggested public solutions. This framework is illustrated by some empirical findings from a transnational empirical study that analysed opinionated journalism on Edward Snowden’s revelations from June 2013 to the end of 2014.