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The Myth of Media Interactivity

Technology, Communications and Surveillance in Japan

School of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University, k-abe{at}kwansei.ac.jp

Since the 1980s, a number of discourses have celebrated the coming of the information society in Japan. In those discourses, enabling media interactivity has been emphasized as the objective of technological innovations, creating a sort of `myth' of media interactivity. This article tries to investigate the close relationship between media interactivity and surveillance modality in newly emergent information and communication technologies, especially SNS (social networking services) on the Internet. While the traditional image of surveillance society is gloomy and repressive, contemporary, ubiquitous surveillance appears brighter and more fun, since people voluntarily engage with interactive media whilst acknowledging its surveillance modality. In that sense, the logic of surveillance is not merely repressive but also seductive for users of interactive media. Given the rising desire for public security after 9/11, the logic of surveillance is becoming more prevalent and dominant all over the world. With the rise of globalized security, philosophical and social scientific interrogations of security-obsessed contemporary society have become indispensable for critical academic discourse. In order to critically interrogate rising surveillance and media interactivity, this article tries to analyze the liberating potentials of the ideal of hospitality, which is expected to offer a counter-logic against surveillance.

Key Words: hospitality • information society • media interactivity • surveillance modality • transparency of communication

Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 26, No. 2-3, 73-88 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0263276409103119


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