Privacy and the Media - Hardcover

McStay, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1473924928 ISBN 13: 9781473924925

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017

Synopsis

Questions of privacy are critical to the study of contemporary media and society. When we’re more and more connected to devices and to content, it’s increasingly important to understand how information about ourselves is being collected, transmitted, processed, and mediated.

Privacy and the Media equips students to do just that, providing a comprehensive overview of both the theory and reality of privacy and the media in the 21st Century. Offering a rich overview of this crucial and topical relationship, author Andrew McStay:

• Explores the foundational topics of journalism, the Snowden leaks, and encryption by companies such as Apple
• Considers commercial applications including behavioural advertising, big data, algorithms, and the role of platforms such as Google and Facebook
• Introduces the role of the body with discussions of emotion, wearable media, peer-based privacy, and sexting
• Encourages students to put their understanding to work with suggestions for further research, challenging them to explore how privacy functions in practice

Privacy and the Media is not a polemic on privacy as "good" or "bad," but a call to assess the detail and the potential implications of contemporary media technologies and practices. It is essential reading for students and researchers of digital media, social media, digital politics, and the creative and cultural industries.

About this title

About the Author:

Andrew McStay is an AHRC Early Career Research Fellow at the School of Creative and Media Studies, Bangor University. He is also author of Digital Advertising; The Mood of Information: A Critique of Behavioural Advertising; Creativity and Advertising: Affect, Events and Process; and Privacy and Philosophy: New Media and Affective Protocol.

Review:

Privacy and the Media is a thoughtful survey of the privacy landscape. McStay reviews the intricate tensions and seeming contradictions to offer an accessible book for anyone curious about the contemporary debates in privacy. Author: danah boyd

This pleasingly accessible book tackles all the major questions that arise in a world whose lifeblood is our personal information; liberty, choice, transparency, control. It goes to the "conceptual, ethical and legal heart of privacy".  McStay argues that privacy is "not about isolation, going off-grid or being a digital hermit". Rather, it is about managing our online lives and controlling how much others know about us. This book persuades me more than ever that privacy is a branch of ethics – the age-old relationship between the self and the other.

Privacy and the Media’ is not a set of neatly answered questions or defences of established positons. It is a series of embarkation points for further exploration of an increasingly critical area of study, with real-world implications for the nature of our ‘datafied’ selves.

The book will serve as a great introduction to informational privacy, not just for media studies students and privacy lawyers, but for any information rights professional needing a deeper understanding of the subject. 

Author: Iain Bourne

McStay’s great achievement here is to confront many of the pertinent and complex questions about media and privacy in a style that is both authoritative and easy to read. He provides an excellent overview of the perennial debates and considers the implications on privacy of an increasingly data-driven media environment. His book will prove an excellent companion for all students of this fascinating and crucial topic. Author: Mireille Hildebrandt

The only book that addresses the full spectrum of the innovation-privacy dynamic, ranging from advertising to intelligence to wearables. It is both timely and necessary; essential reading. Author: Gus Hosein

Clearly and accessibly written, this book is a great resource for anyone interested in the broad range of ways in which privacy and contemporary media are entangled and in the big picture of privacy/media relations today. It challenges media studies to take privacy seriously as a media – and a mediation – issue. I will definitely be assigning it for my students. Author: Helen Kennedy

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1473924928
• ISBN 13: 9781473924925
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224