Emily Taber,Western Washington University
Full Paper: www.kon.org/urc/v9/taber.html
Abstract The application of Jeremy Bentham’s (1785) panoptic concept has changed significantly with the popularization of observational technology and dataveillance. Where Bentham’s model focused on the material, the Digital Age has created new structures of power in contemporary culture, altered how observers and observed interact, and influenced both contemporary cultures of observation and the broader social structure. I analyze what has caused these transitions and traced them to five areas of social and technological change, examining how cultural values have transformed and may continue transforming into the Twenty-first Century.