Module UXS-3055:
Privacy and the Media

Module Facts

Run by School of Arts, Culture and Language

20.000 Credits or 10.000 ECTS Credits

Semester 2

Organiser: Prof Andrew McStay

Overall aims and purpose

The purpose of this dual-coded course it is to offer Level 3 (and 2) students insight into critical debates on privacy and life with data-intensive technologies The module takes an expansive view of what we mean by media to include networked environments, television, journalism, social media, and more. Through a balance of theory and case studies, students will develop awareness of the various ways in which privacy can be conceived, its philosophical understandings and industrial realities; technologies and philosophies of surveillance; and questions of identity and power. Students will eventually use their range of theoretical, technical and economic insight to make recommendations to key stakeholders in privacy matters.

Course content

Week 1: Introduction: What is privacy and why does it matter? A historical/theoretical perspective.

Week 2: Nothing to hide, nothing to fear: myth and Western roots of privacy

Week 3: Journalism: a complex relationship with privacy

Week 4: The Snowden leaks: a call for better surveillance

Week 5: Encryption: simultaneously public and private

Week 6: Platforms: disruption, connection and new social actors

Week 7: Reading Week

Week 8: Big data: machine learning and the politics of algorithms

Week 9: Re-introducing the Body: intimate and wearable media

Week 10: Empathic media: towards ubiquitous emotional intelligence

Week 11: Sexting: exposure, protocol and collective privacy

Week 12: Summary and assessment guidance

Assessment Criteria

threshold

D- to D+

Submitted work is adequate and shows an acceptable level of competence as follows:

  1. Generally accurate but with omissions and errors.
  2. Assertions are made without clear supporting evidence or reasoning.
  3. Has structure but is lacking in clarity and therefore relies on the reader to make links and assumptions.
  4. Draws on a relatively narrow range of material.

good

C- to B+

Submitted work is competent throughout and may be distinguished by superior style, approach and choice of supporting materials. It:

  1. Demonstrates good or very good structure and logically developed arguments.
  2. Draws at least in parts on material that has been sourced and assessed as a result of independent study, or in a way unique to the student.
  3. Assertions are backed by evidence and sound reasoning.
  4. Accuracy and presentation in an appropriate academic style.

excellent

A- to A*

Submitted work is of an outstanding quality and excellent in one or more of the following ways:

  1. Has originality of exposition with the student’s own thinking being readily apparent.
  2. Provides clear evidence of extensive and relevant independent study.
  3. Arguments are laid down with clarity and provide the reader with successive stages of consideration to reach conclusions.

Learning outcomes

  1. Appreciate the philosophical complexity of privacy

  2. To have strong awareness of technical factors that inform privacy matters

  3. To be able to critically analyse new media developments in light of specific theories on privacy

  4. Appreciate legal frameworks that should guide privacy

Assessment Methods

Type Name Description Weight
GROUP PRESENTATION Co-leading seminar

Academic context: evidence of having read and understood the week’s reading. Higher grades will show evidence of wider reading and ability to introduce these new insights into seminar discussion. Value = 60%

Examples: bring reading/theory to life and application to modern case examples. Value = 40%

Total = 100%
Total lecturer mark: ____%

 30.00
REPORT Assessment of privacy implications

Using 2500 words, you are to provide an account of an emergent medium or technological form and assess its privacy implications.

 70.00

Teaching and Learning Strategy

Hours
Study group

Work as a small team to prepare co-leading a seminar for a week.

 16
Tutorial

Consult module teacher with plan for group-work and essay (email or in person)

 1
Lecture

Weekly 1hr lectures

 11
Seminar

Weekly 1hr seminar to discuss core readings

 11
Private study 162

Transferable skills

  • Literacy - Proficiency in reading and writing through a variety of media
  • Numeracy - Proficiency in using numbers at appropriate levels of accuracy
  • Computer Literacy - Proficiency in using a varied range of computer software
  • Self-Management - Able to work unsupervised in an efficient, punctual and structured manner. To examine the outcomes of tasks and events, and judge levels of quality and importance
  • Exploring - Able to investigate, research and consider alternatives
  • Information retrieval - Able to access different and multiple sources of information
  • Inter-personal - Able to question, actively listen, examine given answers and interact sensitevely with others
  • Critical analysis & Problem Solving - Able to deconstruct and analyse problems or complex situations. To find solutions to problems through analyses and exploration of all possibilities using appropriate methods, rescources and creativity.
  • Presentation - Able to clearly present information and explanations to an audience. Through the written or oral mode of communication accurately and concisely.
  • Teamwork - Able to constructively cooperate with others on a common task, and/or be part of a day-to-day working team
  • Argument - Able to put forward, debate and justify an opinion or a course of action, with an individual or in a wider group setting
  • Self-awareness & Reflectivity - Having an awareness of your own strengths, weaknesses, aims and objectives. Able to regularly review, evaluate and reflect upon the performance of yourself and others

Resources

Talis Reading list

http://readinglists.bangor.ac.uk/modules/uxs-3055.html

Reading list

Privacy and the Media by Andrew McStay (please check that we have license for simultaneous reading)

boyd, d. (2014) It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. New Haven: Yale University Press. Full text available from: http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf

Calvert, C. (2000) Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.

Castells, M. (2009) Communication Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hildebrandt, M. and de Vries, H. (2013) Privacy, Due Process and the Computational Turn: The Philosophy of Law Meets the Philosophy of Technology. London: Routledge.

Goold, B.J and & Neyland, D. (eds) (2009) New Directions in Surveillance and Privacy. Cullompton: Willan.

Lane, J.; Stodden, V.; Bender, S. and Nissenbaum, H. (2014) Privacy, Big Data, and the Public Good: Frameworks for Engagement (eds.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Full text available from: http://wpressutexas.net/cs378h/images/b/b3/LaneEtAlPrivacyBigDataAndThePublicGood.pdf

Lyon, D. (2003) Surveillance as Social Sorting: Privacy, Risk and Digital Discrimination. London: Routledge.

McStay, A. (2011) The Mood of Information: a Critique of Online Behavioural Advertising. New York: Continuum.

McStay, A. (2014) Privacy and Philosophy: New Media and Affective Protocol. New York: Peter Lang.

McStay, A. (2016) Digital Advertising (Second Edition). London: Palgrave-Macmillan.

McStay, A. (2018) Emotional AI: The Rise of Empathic Media. London: Sage.

Nissenbaum, H. (2010) Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Rozenburg, J. (2004) Privacy and the Press. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kunelius, R.; Heikkilä, H.; Russell, A. and Yagodin, D. (2017) Journalism and the NSA Revelations: Privacy, Security and the Press. London: I.B. Tauris.

Solove, D.J. and Schwartz, P. (2008) Privacy and the Media. New York: Aspen.

Wacks, R. (1995) Privacy and Press Freedom. London: Blackstone Press

Wacks, R. (2010) Privacy: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Journals to be accessed through the University • Big Data & Society • Communication Research • Communication Studies • European Journal of Communication • Information, Communication & Society* • International Journal of Media and Communication Studies • Journal of Communication Studies • Journal of Consumer Culture • Journal of Ethical Space • Journal of Ethics and Information Technology • Journalism Studies • Marketing Theory • M/C - Media & Culture • New Media and Society * • Social Media + Society • Science, Technology, & Human Values • Theory, Culture & Society

Courses including this module

Compulsory in courses:

Optional in courses: