Watching Each Other: Foucault’s Panopticon and Confessional in Online Sharing
I. Intro
a. Thesis: The internet, especially social media, can be read as Foucault’s confessional-turned-panopticon, in which people expose and put into language (text, pictures, videos, music) their experiences and stories, the process of which makes them subject those experiences to social discourse, to self-police and be policed in terms of the social norms and values of those watching from the tower, the confessors, the public, society.
II. Literature Review
a. Foucault
i. Panopticon
1. Brignall
2. Hope
ii. Confessional
1. Copland
2. McInnis
b. Open expression culture online
i. Boyle
c. Thinking about the internet as a confessional/panopticon
i. Relationship between power/knowledge—between posting/policing and the internet as an institution
1. Rajagopal
ii. Panopticon
1. Official/Authority Surveillance
a. Hope
b. Copland
c. Rajagopal
d. Corporations
i. Brignall
e. Direct policing
i. Boyle
ii. Rajagopal
f. Self oppression
i. Brignall
g. Resistance to surveillance, gaming the system
i. Hope
ii. Rajagopal
iii. Confessional
1. McInnis
2. Copland (web diaries–>I turn to social media as web diaries)
III. Texts of confession
a. Confession sites
i. Hollander
ii. Anonymity—anonymity vs. identification; anonymity via internet regardless of identification; illusion of anonymity
b. Social media
i. Joyce—two-way panopticon
ii. Heussner
iii. Facebook
iv. Twitter
v. Instagram
c. Transparency
i. Daily blogs
ii. The Circle
iii. Jaedah’s project
IV. Conclusion
a. Summary
b. Possibilities for resistance–Third voice – Jukuri
c. Further thoughts
Digital A-Rae 