Is surveillance ethical?
- victoriaprab
- May 26, 2023
- 4 min read
Surveillance isn’t scary but when it falls into the wrong hands it’s deadly.
Video Brief
My chosen digital media context is surveillance. The reason I chose this topic is because of its controversy. I find that different people have different opinions on surveillance and thought it would be an interesting topic to research on and also to make a video on. Since it is so controversial, my first idea was to interview people to get their insight on this topic as well. The goal of my video is to raise awareness on how surveillance should be used. The intention of using surveillance should always be for positive impact and not negative impact. My intended audience for this video is those who are curious about surveillance and also scared of the use of surveillance. I want to bring light to how it could be positively used and how big of an impact it can make on crime and inappropriate behavior. In a study, it was found that people had greater privacy concerns when they perceive the risk of their private information being disclosed through face recognition, however they still would give their personal information for the sake of the services and applications they use. (Liu, et al. 2021) My approach on this topic is to make an analytical video. In this video, I want to go through the different points of perspectives people have and conclude from it.
Reflection
Through this video, I wanted to convey the pros and cons of surveillance. After much thought, I realized surveillance is a difficult area to assume whether it is ethical or not. Because of this, I wanted to show both sides of where surveillance would be correct and would be incorrect. I noticed that surveillance has been a controversial topic ever since China started using advanced surveillance technology to improve the state of their country. I remember seeing multiple articles, news reports, and social media posts about how it was taking the rights of their citizens away. So, I started off my video talking about this to gain the viewer’s attention.
Looking back at the process of my video, I first started by deciding the logline and script. After I created a first rough draft of my video, I started putting these ideas onto a storyboard to get a clearer vision of what I would be making. I got ideas through academic articles, news articles, online forums, and books. In the process of curating a final video plan, I got the idea to include interviews in my video. Since I wanted to include as many perspectives as possible, I decided to also ask people in real life to see their thoughts about it. As a result of this change, I struggled scheduling times of when to film and when to interview people. Since I was also including other people in the video, I had to receive consent forms from the people included.
After recording clips of myself discussing and also the interviews, I was finally able to edit all the footage. The editing process of this video was definitely a struggle. I had to make multiple changes to make videos blend well together and also divide it into sections so viewers would be able to have a clear grasp of what I was explaining in this lengthy video. I created dividers throughout the video of title screens that showed what section of the topic I was discussing about. Using overlays was also a struggle. I had already found a non-copyrighted image from Creative Commons, but I wanted to get more footage. As I was unable to find footage that was to my liking, I ended up using my own footage. I think this was the better outcome because I wouldn’t get myself into copyright issues and it looked more authentic.
Filling up space was another huge thing. Especially in lengthy videos like this, it is important to me to gain the viewer’s attention. I obviously do not want people clicking off my video after they have watched it. So, I decided to add more elements that would make the video more interactive and engaging. I added overlays of images, videos and even time lapse recordings of me drawing. Adding music was a good help in making the video more engaging. The type of music I chose was meant to be calming and relaxing but also subtle so that it does not take away the focus of the video. With this, I also decided to keep some parts of the video without music. I kept clips with no music so that it would emphasize what I was discussing and also grab the attention of the viewers.
Lessons I have learned from this project was that lengthy videos take a lot of effort and time. I realize the effort people put in when creating videos like these and it has made me have even more respect for these people. The challenges I encountered through editing this video was quite stressful, but it was worth it in the end. Thinking out of the box was definitely a skill I had to practice during this process. When I encountered challenges and small details I did not like, I had to come up with newer and improved ideas to satisfy my wants. Overall, I am satisfied with my work and I hope to create even better projects in the future.
References
China: Facial recognition and state control (2018) YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/lH2gMNrUuEY (Accessed: 26 May 2023).
Liu, T. et al. (2021) Research on face recognition and privacy in China-based on social cognition and cultural psychology, Frontiers in psychology. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8739079/ (Accessed: 26 May 2023).
Dive into anything (no date) Reddit. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2al9ep/help_me_debate_people_who_argue_that_mass/ (Accessed: 26 May 2023).
"Surveillance" by jonathan mcintosh is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. (CC image)
Vallance, C. (2023) Sports direct owner defends live face-recognition camera use, BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65376692 (Accessed: 26 May 2023).
Nineteen Eighty-Four (no date) Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nineteen-Eighty-four (Accessed: 26 May 2023).
Music provided by BuGuMi
Track: Today’s Diary - https://youtu.be/2NwW5oPwaGo
Music provided by Stream of Melodies
Track: Nighttime Stroll - https://youtu.be/DVEUcbPkb-c
Comments