Privacy and the Media
- Andrew McStay - Bangor University, UK
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, Andy 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.
'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.'- danah boyd, author of It’s Complicated and founder of Data & Society
‘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... His book will prove an excellent companion for all students of this fascinating and crucial topic.’
- Mireille Hildebrandt, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
‘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... I will definitely be assigning it for my students.’
- Helen Kennedy, University of Sheffield
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is an easy to read, accessible text book that is aimed to tackle timely privacy concerns. The chapters are short, with pertinent examples that make the reading enjoyable. I teach from this book the issue of privacy and recommend other teachers to do the same.
I thank Sage for a book copy.
