This was a short week because our midterm was also this week. The only reading for this week was the "Surveillance Culture" article. In this article Jewkes discusses as the title might suggest, surveillance. He discusses how surveillance first came about. He argues that it was not actually a measure taken by the government and by police to stop crime so much as really just a successful marketing scheme by those who are in production of the surveillance systems. There was not really a call, cry, or need so much for surveillance until those companies got the government, stores, and the public to really buy into the fact that these would stop crime. In fact after millions of dollars have been spent on the results are arguably medial. The one environment where they were a huge success was in parking garages. Jewkes goes on to discuss what surveillance has actually been used for since it hasn't helped much with crime. Surveillance is used for economics. It is used in a way to classify customers in stores, to classify wanted and unwanted customers so that they can take measures to encourage customers who will actually yield profit, and discourage those who actually solicit and inhibit their business. It was an interesting read and a viewpoint on surveillance that I had never considered before.
And...I finished the season of my show weeks ago but the Black Donnellys never have surveillance in the show. In fact they never worry about it at all. It's like it's the wild west and it doesn't exist yet or something.
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