Open Access‘The footage is decisive’: Applying the thinking of Marshall McLuhan to CCTV and police misconduct
Author(s) -
Richard Evans
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
surveillance and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.781
H-Index - 46
ISSN - 1477-7487
DOI - 10.24908/ss.v13i2.5298
Subject(s) - misconduct , metaphor , media theory , mass media , crowdsourcing , perception , broadcasting (networking) , media ecology , criminology , sociology , political science , law , computer security , media studies , computer science , epistemology , philosophy , linguistics
This article adapts Marshall McLuhan’s writings on mass media to ubiquitous and universal surveillance systems, looking at surveillance as media. The term ‘broadcast media’ is derived from an agricultural metaphor, a technique of planting. I argue that CCTV systems are an inversion of broadcasting: ‘harvest media’. Drawing on three case studies in which CCTV has been relevant to allegations of police misconduct, I explore how harvest media impacts on cultural and legal perceptions of evidence, truth and deniability.