Privacy and Freedom of Expression as a New Media Commodities

Privacy and Freedom of Expression as a New Media Commodities

This article is a study of political economy of media to search engines and social media. Entry point used is the commodification of audiences. As with several other articles, writings first published as a final project course the political economy of media in science communication graduate program, University of Indonesia. I personally feel this article still contains quite a lot of flaws and can still be explored further. For example, analysis of the two knives I mentioned at the outset (hegemony and habitus), a new hegemony that I use in this paper. If you have time, this article will be revised after being published for the first time on this blog.

For students and academics who happened to find this article useful for a paper to be made, please respect your self and do the proper citation procedure. This article from the citation. Thank you

Introduction:

Current users of media and Internet-based services anesthetized by the illusion of freedom of expression and ease of communication through a variety of service-based "user generated content", but actually they traded the rights of access to various services with the loss of privacy of personal data. Privacy and freedom of expression in cyberspace has now become a commodity that has economic value for a new kind of capitalists in the virtual space.

The structure of the communications industry which now penetrated all new media, ie media that use the Internet as a channel of distribution, experienced a shift in perspective and strategy in the conduct of capital accumulation. Through the mediation of modern information and communication technology, investors can now Customize products tailored to specific needs of individuals. For that information about the identity of the individual level into a valuable asset for investors. Institutions, media and service business online then make the information on the characteristics of the users at the individual level as a commodity, in addition to access to reach the users of earlier.

Political economic studies in this paper tries to show how freedom berekpresi into a commodity offered to the user's Internet service, replacing the primary content as a decoy for the conventional mass media audience. While the user loses control over privacy and personal data it has, because the manager of online services offer it to other investors as a commodity.

This paper also attempts to show that the capitalists of online services with the help of conventional media, promoting the trend to use the freedom berekpresi, connect, and share with others through online services. The concept of hegemony is used to analyze why the idea of ​​communities interconnected (networked society) is accepted as a logical consequence of technological progress and is considered as a reasonable, although in fact is part of the ideology of capitalism. Meanwhile, the actions of users who voluntarily provide personal data to use the online service can be explained through the habitus.

Media and the Commodification of Political Economy Audience For Entry Point

Vincent Mosco defines political economy as the study of social relations, particularly relations of power, which together form the production, distribution, and consumption derived from the resource. Furthermore the political economy tends to concentrate on a set of social relations are organized around specific power or ability to control other people, processes, and other things, even when faced with a form of resistance. Mosco in this case exemplifies the work of Mattelart (1991) which documented how international marketing companies to strengthen their power in the media business by becoming a major provider of valuable information about consumers (Mosco, 1996, p.25).

Power relationships that occur within the context of this paper is an online service capitalist with the service users. Although at a glance it seems these services exist to serve and meet the needs of users, but the actual behavior of the use of a variety of online services is determined by the owners of capital based on their interests. Then through the illustration of the study of political economy Mosco Mattelart, we can see that the issue of commodification of information media consumers has long been a part of the conventional media industry. Now commodification similar happened also in the context of the new media industry.

Political economic analysis can be performed through three entry points or process, that is commodification, spasialisasi, and structuration. Mosco describes the entry points as the entrance to the social domain that provides a substantive focus for thinking about the characteristics of social practices without stating that the entry points that provide the essential definition that captures the totality of the realm is being discussed (Mosco, 1996, p.10). This paper uses the concept of commodification as an entry point.

Commodification process describes how to carry out its primary purpose of capitalism to make the accumulation of capital or realize value through trasnformasi use value into exchange value (Mosco, 1996, p.140).

The production process begins when the capitalists make the purchase of the commodity labor and materials production, and finally the output is sold with a value exceeding the initial investment, adding value is called surplus value (value added). This added value can be reinvested to expand capital accumulation. Mosco shows that in Marxist theory, this process is a process of exploitation, because it puts labor in a position as a commodity or factor of production, the same position as land and raw materials. This makes the workers are directed to exchange their labor for income that is not fully compensate for the energy they provide (Mosco, 1996, p.142).

Study the political economy of communication in general, give emphasis to describe and examine the significance of structural forms is responsible for the production, distribution, exchange of commodities communication, regulation of the structures that usually by the state. When discussing the commodification, the study of political economy more focused on content, then slightly to the attention of the media audience, and very little attention to the labor force in the communications industry (Mosco, 1996, p.144).

Smythe (1977) in Mosco stated that the audience is the main commodity of mass media. This idea was influenced by Garnham thinking about the two main dimensions of the commodification of media, namely the direct result of media products, and the use of advertising media to enhance the process of commodification in the overall economy. According to Smythe, the mass media as we know it emerged through a process in which media corporations produce and deliver the audience they are presented to the advertisers. Programs or media content is provided to attract the attention of an audience, and advertisers pay to get access to the media audience. Through this stand point, work your audience or audience work force are the main products of mass media. Political economy does seem to have a tendency to put the audience in consuming media activity as labor activity (Mosco, 1996: p.148, 150).

Service users on the Internet in that it has the same position with the conventional media audience. They sesungguhanya working to improve the exchange rate of these media, because the frequency of media consumption by the audience directly proportional to the exchange rate of the media is concerned. This can be evidenced by the fact that the media has a large number of audiences tend to be able to offer advertising rates are higher. For service users on the Internet, their contribution to the capitalist owners of the online services even larger, namely by providing a new production factor which has exchange value for the managers of the service / Internet-based media in the form of personal data they provide to be able to use the service- that service. Personal data has a higher value for advertisers, along with a new marketing trend that targets its product offerings to the individual level according to the characteristics and needs of each individual.

Election of commodification audience as an entry point in this paper based on the explanation Smythe earlier. Users of online services is not only seen in the position as the audience / consumer, but also as workers. As consumers they exchange personal data into the realm of their privacy with access to online services desired. As a worker, the users were actively using the service thus increasing the economic value of services, as well as acting as recruitment agency that invites people to participate in familiar use. While the appeal of such content as a commodity on the conventional media was replaced by the promises of freedom to access and produce information through those services.

Privacy

Privacy is an abstract concept that has many meanings. Pengambaran popular about privacy include the right of individuals to determine whether and the extent to which someone is willing to open himself to others or the right to privacy is not compromised. But in theory recognized, privacy is defined as a special right to freedom of (particular right of freedom). It is the right to not intervene in private lives. Holmes argues van Djik suggested one of the best definitions to describe privacy as, "Freedom from intrusion into areas of one's own life That one has not explicitly or implicitly opened to others'. (Dijk, 2006; p.113)

Privacy is defined as a commodity in the context of online service users and service providers capitalists, including the category of informational privacy. This type of privacy is all about control of the individual to store personal data, as well as to information and decisions based on such data. (Dijk, 2006; p.114)

This means that personal data such as identities, interests, traces of the action, and user generated content that they put in a virtual space on online services such as those provided by google, yahoo, facebook, myspace, twitter etc is an asset that should be in the realm of privacy . The use of these assets should be in full control of their respective owners.

Search Engines and Social Media

Search engines (search engines) is an online service that collects and create index web pages that exist on the world wide web. Index is compiled based on certain meta data such as keywords, by entering a specific keyword, the search engine will display a list of addresses and a brief description of pages considered yard closest to the desired page or the possibility of user needs.

Is the dominant search engine Google.com and Yahoo.com. Yahoo's revenue in 2003 is estimated to reach U.S. $ 1,625,097,000, while Google in the same year is estimated to earn revenue of U.S. $ 961,874,000 (Couvering, 2004). While in 2009, Google posted a 23,650.56 million dollars (http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/GOOG/financials).

In addition to the google search engine provides various services such as google earth, youtube, google mail and various other services that require the use to register themselves with providing personal data such as name, email and so on.

Social Media (Social Media), Danah Boyd defines social media as:

    Social media is the latest buzzword in a long line of buzzwords. It is Often used to describe the collection of software That enables individuals and communities to gather, Communicate, share, and in some cases collaborate or play. In tech circles, social media has replaced the Earlier fave "social software." Academics still growing niche to prefer terms like "computer-mediated communication" or "computer-supported cooperative work" to describe the practices' That emerge from these tools and the old school Might even academics categorize these tools as "groupwork" tools. Social media is driven by another buzzword: "user-generated content" or content That Is Contributed by Participants rather than editors (Boyd, 2009)

Social media provides services to build social networking with a lot of people in cyberspace, allowing space for its users to share content, disseminate information, and communicate with other users. along with the widespread use of social media trends, also increased the perceived value to their respective users.

Social media that is currently dominating the facebook and twitter. Facebook already has a number of more than 400 million users (starting from week to May 3, 2010) (WAH / Compass, 2010), with estimated revenues exceeding one billion U.S. dollars (http://mashable.com/2010/03/02/facebook -Could-surpass-1-billion-revenue-in-this-year /).

Just as the services provided by search engines, social media services also requires the user to provide the data services themselves before they can be enjoyed. Furthermore, social media service also provides a mechanism by which users can use the services provided by third parties on the condition that such third party services we are allowed to access the data that we keep ourselves at the service of social media earlier.

Here we can see that the service of search engines and social media as if not paid, in fact we have to pay with a willingness to share personal data to the managers of these services. To convince the people that are willing to perform such an exchange, the owner of the service must offer value to the services it manages. The need for search engine services and social media have created and maintained continuously, and this is helped by the pervasiveness of the information society concept and community networks as a logical konseuensi of age who have followed the progress of society.

Need for products that are aesthetically pleasing, highly specialized temporary and unpredictable, and therefore the need for products to be created. The need to connect, find information, and gain pleasure through online services, or in other words the need to feel part of the information society / community networking is a type of needs that must be built. The process of creation of these needs can be described in three stages.

First consumers were encouraged to believe that although the hedonistic consumption, is very striking, and a large amount of it is natural / reasonable. Global corporations pushing even the symbols that are used in such a way that it needs not only felt natural but also very desirable. In this case the need to master the fastest and most complete information as a valuable asset in the information society are made to be a reasonable requirement, even to be met in order not to lag behind other parties. Similarly, the need to connect with an extensive social networking, social collaboration, as well as having access to digital content sharing.

Second, certain values ​​must be inculcated among consumers to steer consumers to immediately recognize and respond positively to the symbols that are invested in this growing product. Online media with the conventional media gave a vigorous onslaught of the digital lifestyle where it is positioned as a trend that is irreversible. A variety of coverage and reviews of digital lifestyle such as search engines and social media can be found easily in various media. Even certain symbols with a strong stick in the minds of people so that a particular activity is identified with the symbol. Googling the word refers to the process such information in the universe search the world wide web using google.com facilities.

Third, consumers must participate in making the consumption of products offered. Consumer consumption in the context of social media and search engine software is running a role even further than just using the services offered. Consumers affect people he knew to join use and will assure its usefulness. This is an action that makes sense given the social media, especially online services rely on a large number of users. The larger networks terbentu, the more users feel the pleasure in using it. (Peterson, 2003; p.142-143)

Commodification of Privacy and Freedom of Expression

Study of the commodification of privacy that is interchangeable with online participation, was made by Matt Carlson. Carlson uses the concept of the Panopticon was reinstated by Foucault from a concept first proposed by Jeremy Bentham. Panopticon was originally described the concept of a prison without walls, so that the prison experience itself open and monitored continuously, although in reality are not. Panopticon Foucault uses this analogy to describe the mechanisms of social control. In the context of online media monitoring mechanisms against individuals made through the technological capability to perform the tracking of online behavior based on a person's digital footprint left behind. Furthermore, users of online services was actively participated in conducting surveillance mechanism against itself, by providing data voluntarily in exchange for free access to the service you want to use. How to view the users to privacy is shifted by putting privacy as a commodity that has exchange value (Matt, 2002).

Surveillance and tracking online phenomenon that we see through a credo that is expressed to describe the ability of google to collect the data themselves millions of users through various online services it offers. Creed reads, "do not be evil", because Google is able to bring together the various pieces of data that we fill through various registration forms to track the identity and our actions dijagad cyberspace, as well as stories of our lives that we share voluntarily through various online services. Authorities can use these data to track and take legal action against us.

Mark Zukerberg, founder of Facebook services reveals a vision that privacy is no longer important in the digital lifestyle. This statement refers to the fact that most Facebook users, although stating its attention on privacy issues, but few actually apply them in the use of social media. The users are encouraged to be more numerous and more often share information about yourself, interests, and information with others in the virtual universe (http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0 ,8599,1990582-1 , 00.html).

Based on the concept of privacy that have been outlined above, should the use of personal data controlled by the owner of the data itself. Other parties should not use let alone sell such data to other parties without permission Diki us. but in fact the online services like facebook, google, myspace and some other online services allegedly forwarding of personal data as names and personal pages to advertisers, when a user presses a link ads on sites such services (Dybward, 2010).

However, to confirm the dominance of the capitalist economy in the virtual universe. Capitalists need to instill some things as a natural part of people's lifestyles. First the concept of information society (information society) and public network (the network society) (Dijk, 2006) should be the reference for the present structure of society by engaging digital communications technology and online services in it.

Second, information technology and communications as well as a variety of digital services is an opportunity to create a more democratic society and free. Free to seek whatever information is needed, and free to produce whatever information and disseminate it to as many people. The second factor is that then the main attraction of search engine services and social media, because unlike conventional media services that tend to frame the information and restrict the interactions to provide feedback. The virtual world provides access to materials which are very rich information from multiple perspectives. The virtual world also provides opportunities for interaction and sharing of digital content so that information can spread very quickly. The second element is not just a commodity that appeal to individual consumers, but also manarik for conventional media.

Third, the granting authority and control over personal data to the Administrator in the virtual world solely for the benefit of the owner of the data itself, so that service managers can provide more specific services in accordance with the characteristics of each individual. In fact, personal data is an important asset and has the exchange rate, since beyond the manager of online services that we provide the right to store personal data, there are also other parties who require such data to provide business offerings that terkostumasi to us as the data owner. The problem of data owners often do not know to whom any personal data is shared and for what benefit.

Hegemony in the process of commodification

Hegemony by Gramsci is, "process of constituting the common sense '. Gramci use this term to describe the success of capitalism instill capitalist ideas as something that is fair and reasonable to all levels of society.

In the development of hegemony can also be used to explain how certain ideologies can penetrate into people's lives without resistance, because what is listed in the ideologies that felt fair and reasonable.

In the context of the commodification of privacy and freedom of expression in this virtual space. Hegemony can be used to explain why the exploitation of individual privacy are interchangeable with the freedom to use the online service can be accepted by capitalist society. The exchange rate associated with use value become one of the main concepts of capitalism. The principle of economic neoclasiccal example states that the smallest sacrifices must be obtained to profit maximization.

Capitalist society is bombarded with the concept of public information and community networking. Where the two concepts is strusktur society that must be achieved in accordance with the demands of the times. With the acceptance of the concept of information becomes very valuable and menmiliki exchange rates, the ability to collaborate and connect with the various parties is also a valuable economic asset. Not surprisingly, when new types of capitalists to invest their capital to provide services to obtain information, to produce information and connect with many parties emerged, the people welcomed him as a commodity that can help their need for information and collaboration. Apalgi when these services are available free or without charging any money.

The requirement to provide data users themselves as an online service registration requirement is deemed reasonable and very profitable. The promise that these data merely are used to improve online services relevant to the user's mind not to provide such data. But that does not realize is that users can never be entirely sure that the data are not used as a commodity by peyedia online services to other parties.

We give up control of our privacy in exchange for the right to use a service that promises freedom of expression and finding information in cyberspace.

Bibliography

Boyd, D. (2009, 26 February). "Social Media is Here to Stay ... Now what?". Blog posted to http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/MSRTechFest2009.html. Couvering, E. V. (2004). New Media? The Political Economy of Internet Search Engines. Paper Presented at the Conference of the International Association of Media & Communications Researchers (IAMCR). Retrieved 20 March 2010, from http://personal.lse.ac.uk/vancouve/iamcr-ctp_searchenginepoliticaleconomy_evc_2004-07-14.pdf Dijk, J. v. (2006). The Network Society (2nd ed.). London, California, New Delhi: SAGE Publications Ltd.. Dybward, B. (2010). Facebook and Others Caught Sending User Data to Advertisers Retrieved 24 May, 2010, from http://mashable.com/2010/05/20/facebook-caught-sending-user-data-to-advertisers/ Matt, C. (2002). Panopticon.com: online surveillance and the commodification of privacy. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 46 (4). Mosco, V. (1996). The Political Economy of Communication - Rethinking and Renew (1st ed.). London, California, New Delhi: SAGE Publications Inc. Peterson, V. S. (2003). A Critical Rewriting of Global Political Economy: Integrating reproductive, productive and virtual economies WAH / Compass (2010, February 2010 | 11:23 GMT). Translucent 400 Million Facebook Users Friday, 5 February 2010. Retrieved 5 February, 2010, from http://tekno.kompas.com/read/xml/2010/02/05/11234746/Pengguna.Facebook.Tembus.400.Juta