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Flawed Newspaper Reporting on Surveillance Capitalism and its Implications for Democracy, Human Rights, and Human Autonomy : A Content Analysis of German Newspapers

Kara, Mitja (2022) Flawed Newspaper Reporting on Surveillance Capitalism and its Implications for Democracy, Human Rights, and Human Autonomy : A Content Analysis of German Newspapers.

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Abstract:Surveillance Capitalism is an emergent logic of accumulation that computes private human experience into marketable behavior prediction products and, according to scholars, is on a direct collision course with democracy and human rights. As its mechanisms are designed to be hidden, public knowledge is scarce, which is why scholars call for education and a “public awakening” as a basis for counteraction. Through agenda-setting, the news media play a crucial role in informing the public and shaping public opinion on political topics and thus can either illuminate the public or further obscure the issue. Hence, this study aims at exploring the extent and ways that German newspapers inform the German public about the issue of Surveillance Capitalism. Employing a content analysis of German newspaper articles, this thesis shows that the newspapers significantly emphasize issues of privacy, data protection, and competition over issues of democracy, human rights, and human autonomy and thus paint a flawed picture of Surveillance Capitalism in the public mind. Furthermore, the results show how the articles, by explaining and evaluating the issue as an unprecedented, perversion of “normal” capitalism, fail to identify the inherent problems in capitalism itself.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:88 social and public administration
Programme:Management Society and Technology BSc (56654)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/91894
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