Leiden University Student Repository

Mamritsova, Dilyana (2018)

The digital panopticon: media, state, and cultural hegemony in the case of the revelations made by Edward Snowden

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

Nowadays the internet domain has become indispensable in modern society. As technology is accelerating and developing, cyber culture is becoming ever-more dominant in the field of politics. As such, various actors’ ability to upend the global political order by electronic means is increasing, as well as states are able to exert power in a less coercive way. With this in mind, this paper seeks to examine the revelations made by Edward Snowden with regard to US surveillance practices. The disclosures by Snowden have generated a large discussion around surveillance with regard to the digital panopticon and the imperialistic nature of the US. This paper examines the role of US media in their effort to continue to be globally dominant. The study employs a qualitative method and critical interpretive approach to answer the research question, by applying the theory of cultural hegemony to explain how the American media co-opts the US state by using framing. As such, this is achieved by...Show moreNowadays the internet domain has become indispensable in modern society. As technology is accelerating and developing, cyber culture is becoming ever-more dominant in the field of politics. As such, various actors’ ability to upend the global political order by electronic means is increasing, as well as states are able to exert power in a less coercive way. With this in mind, this paper seeks to examine the revelations made by Edward Snowden with regard to US surveillance practices. The disclosures by Snowden have generated a large discussion around surveillance with regard to the digital panopticon and the imperialistic nature of the US. This paper examines the role of US media in their effort to continue to be globally dominant. The study employs a qualitative method and critical interpretive approach to answer the research question, by applying the theory of cultural hegemony to explain how the American media co-opts the US state by using framing. As such, this is achieved by normalizing surveillance practices by focusing the attention towards Snowden and the fear of another 9/11.Show less

media framing

digital panopticon

Snowden

US surveillance

cultural hegemony

Author

Mamritsova, Dilyana

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

International Relations

Supervisors

Regilme, Salvador

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en