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Panoptic Surveillance and New Media

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State

Panoptic surveillance, adapted from Bentham's panopticon prison design as analyzed by Foucault, describes how new media lets institutions shape conduct because the watched cannot verify whether they are being observed.

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A nanny-cam or workplace tracking software lets a watcher observe without the watched knowing exactly when observation occurs.

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The concept concerns behavior changing under possible observation, not observation happening at every moment.

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