ISPY: Chapters 6 and 7

Chapter 6: I-WAR

"One result is that centralized forms of social control and risk management associated with the welfare state are replaced by the niche markets for security."

Andrejevic talks about the 9/11 events and our war on terrorism. In this chapter he links the terrorist events to ways used to trick the American people into giving up privacy in exchange for safety. After the war on terrorism people became fearful and were scared of another Terrorist attack. As we all know 9/11 was a devastating event in American history. People were constantly reminded of this tragedy, so that they could be able to provide as much information as they felt possible in order to clear their identity. The government used terrorism as the basis for why they should have access to people's personal information. The government saw interactivity and surveillance as a tactic to fight terrorism and fight war. Having our information was a way in which we secured our rights for protection. In order to do this we gave up personal info.

"The novel element of the so called war on terror was that the enemy's weaponry took familiar form of passenger jets, cars, computer code, and even the daily mail, technologies of communication and transportation."<--- Fear target in order to make people okay with giving out their information. Terrorism is an excuse to invade our private lives. There are things that we probably don’t want people to know that because someone is watching us they know.

Chapter 7: I-Politics
We give the government a lot of liberty when it comes to using our information. We all want to feel safe and secure. In this chapter Andrejevic touches on the politics of interactivity and the role it plays. He names one of the sections in this chapter "The Political Promise of New Media" where states “the mobilization of the promise of interactivity comes into its own in the realm of politics-the realm from which the popular reception of new media as tangentially democratic is drawn." Andrejevic touches on the idea of Americans having a blind eye towards the way that we are being watched. We allow the government to tap into our conversations and save records of our internet searches if they have too for a “better America.” However, we have no privacy because everything we do is closely being watched.  The internet allows us to be more democratic however this is only an illusion because there is still a limit the government puts on the things we research. They can intervene.

Andrejevic does touch on the fact that the media is democratic because it is becoming easier to gain information every day. However, politicians use the media as ways to gain voters. The information that we put online allow politicians to target us. They try to influence us in order to follow them because they have a better idea of our interests and ideas due to the information we provide. Andrejevic talks about the government being able to track down our phone calls. The government makes us so fearful we are willing to give up our information. We do this to stay in the clear and for our nation’s security.