Surveillance has become a routine, everyday occurrence ininformational societies. Many agencies have an interest in personal data, and a wide spectrum of them use searchabledatabases to classify and catalogue such data. From policingto welfare to the Internet and e-commerce, personal data havebecome very valuable, economically and administratively. Whilequestions of privacy are indeed raised by such surveillance,the processes described here have as much to do with social sorting,and thus present new problems of automated categorization of datasubjects. Privacy and data protection measures (...) do address someof the questions raised, but they tend to be limited to individualisticreadings of the situation, and not to consider issues of fairnessand equality. An ethics for everyday surveillance is proposed thatconsiders personhood as central, but highlights its social andembodied dimensions. Reductionism of practice and of analysisis thus avoided as the face comes to the fore. Hence the title. (shrink)

This study uses the theory of dyadic morality to analyze construction of cyberbullying as a contested social issue in U. S. newspaper opinion pieces. The theory of dyadic morality posits that when...

This article explores the interface between cultural studies and soci ology, as expressed through four scenarios which construe the 'debate' in particular ways. Two of these - 'cultural studies succession' and 'postmodernist conjuncturalist cultural studies' - unapologetically seek to dismiss sociology in favour of cultural studies, whilst a third - 'socio logical revenge' - appears to turn the tables entirely. A fourth and more productive scenario dwells synthetically on the 'cultural turn' across the whole 'field' of the social and human (...) sciences. All four postures dis cussed are found to share two problematical features. The first of these is that although rhetoric/discourse is crucial in the construction of iden tities, including disciplinary identities, over-rhetorical manifestos readily generate critical doubts about their consistency and appropri ateness. Second, the focus in the four scenarios is chiefly on disciplinary homes, fields, or turns rather than, as it perhaps should be, on substan tive theses or ideological positions within these. (shrink)

Of all sociology's `strange others', cultural studies is perhaps the least unfamiliar to many sociologists. Yet cultural studies exists in one of the most ambiguous relationships with sociology of any academic discipline. In this article, it is argued that the complicated nature of the relationship is compelled by the very closeness of the two participants in it. What often seems to be an ongoing state of ritualized antagonism between them flows not from their ostensible differences but in fact from their (...) striking underlying similarities. Their symbiotic bond both compels, and is hidden by, the rhetorical displays of selfhood in which they both often engage. The article reviews and assesses this state of affairs, and argues that the similarities between the two disciplines are actually based on a number of shared epistemological assumptions, a priori ways of thinking that in fact are very much open to question. A critique of these assumptions is outlined, and it is suggested that by recognizing their shared nature, both sociology and cultural studies, and the relationship between them, would enter into a greater state of intellectual maturity. (shrink)

Etiske spørsmål knyttet til krise- og katastrofenyheter diskuteres som regel i forhold til personvern og journalistiske overtramp. Det er journalistenes utøvelse av sin profesjon i en katastrofesituasjon, og spesielt konsekvensene for ofre og pårørende, som har vært i fokus i den etiske debatten i Norge. Denne artikkelen ser nærmere på to etisk utfordrende forhold med eksempler fra utvalgte katastrofenyheter. På den ene sidendrøftes dethvordan økt personfokusering og nærhetskravet som journalistisk nyhetskriterium bidrar til at mennesket kan bli misbrukt for å øke (...) seertallene. Økt kommersialisering tvinger mediebedriftene til å ta i bruk dramaturgiske midler som kan true integriteten til de involverte i nyhetssendinger. På den andre siden diskuteres det, på grunnlag av resepsjonsforskningen, på hvilken måte publikum kan oppleve den journalistiske dramaturgien krenkende i katastrofenyhetene. Som teoretisk grunnlag vurderes Levinas og Løgstrups nærhetsetikk, som medieforskerne i Norge har brukt som en etisk rettesnor for å ivareta enkeltmenneskets krav på respekt i katastrofenyheter. I denne artikkelen hevdes det at nærhetsetikken kommer til kort i en kommersiell, fiksjonalisert og teknisk avansert nyhetsproduksjon. Det foreslås også hvordan enkeltmennesker kan presenteres mer etisk ansvarlig i katastrofenyheter. (shrink)

This paper looks at how the strategies of mediaand cultural studies can be applied to thehealth studies field. This relationship,however, has been met with resistance due to anumber of status debates. We argue theimportance of fostering links between these`disciplines' namely because the definition ofwhat constitutes `health' has been broadenedand is inscribed in most forms of popularmedia. Using the example of the `health andlifestyle' debate, we argue that the mediainforms cultural understandings aboutrequirements for living and is therefore acrucial area of analysis (...) for health studies(and cultural/media studies) students. We arealso concerned with analysing how the mediacontributes to the construction and regulationof `healthy' subjects making links with publichealth discourses and current debates in thefield of media and health. (shrink)