Discuss the impact of digital and mobile communication technologies, government and police surveillance on Post 9/11 American society.

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Humanities

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The task will be to use the sociological concepts (ideology, class, opiate of the masses, charismatic authority, the Panopticon, norms, institutions, bureaucracy, etc. along with the theories of Marx, Foucault, Bourdieu and Weber from the readings and critically evaluate George Orwell’s 1984, (including a comparison of Winton Smith with the real life Edward Snowden) while you compare 1984 to 2019 America. How do Edward Snowden and Winston Smith face similar dilemmas? Are Snowden and Winston both trapped in a digital iron cage? Are there any sociological lessons we might apply from the documentary The Fog of War? Make sure you also address the timely question regarding the impact of government surveillance on American society in a post-9/11 world.. Ie: Prizm and the Bumblehive facility in Bluffdale, Utah. Should we worry about who controls metadata? What about the problem of surveillance capitalism?

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Explanation & Answer

Hello, attached is the complete paper, and its outline. Let me know in case of any issue

Running Head: SURVEILLANCE

1

Impact of Digital and Mobile Communication Technologies, Government and Police
Surveillance On Post 9/11 American Society.
Name
Institutional Affiliation

SURVEILLANCE

2

In his book, 1984, George Orwell tells of a state that lived under government
surveillance. More than two decades later, NSA computer specialist Edward Snowden exposed
the government’s electronic snooping programs that were used in surveillance. As a result, there
was an outcry from civil liberties advocates as they sought to reduce the surveillance by the
government. However, post 9/11, the American people seem ready to let go of some of their
liberties so they can have some semblance of security from terrorist attacks (Altheide, 2017). As
such, the government, aided by technological advancements has widened its scope of
surveillance, even surpassing what Orwell had predicted in his book. It continues to gather
metadata that is then used by the intelligence community in the detection of patterns that had not
been observed previously thereby enabling the government to compile dossiers on millions of its
citizens as well as internationally. The overall effect of this is that the surveillance systems
augment state power in a way that is close to authoritarian.
Both Snowden and Winton Smith lived under States that had the capacity to watch them
at any time through surveillance. In both cases, the citizens stayed in line since there was
uncertainty in the surveillance that was taking place. While Orwell’s book was based on a
fictional state, the truth has finally dawned on Americans living in the post 9/11 era. Snowden’s
revelations on the level of surveillance by NSA created the need for the tale to be reexamined as
there are too many similarities (Lyon, 2016). The Party ensured that there was a permanent state
of war which was meant to maintain control of the society. In the current post 9/11 society, there
has been the emergence of an obedient citizenry...


Anonymous
Awesome! Perfect study aid.

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