Questions of privacy are critical to the study of contemporary media and society. When we're more and more connected to devices and to content, it's increasingly important to understand how information about ourselves is being collected, transmitted, processed, and mediated.

Privacy and the Media equips students to do just that, providing a comprehensive overview of both the theory and reality of privacy and the media in the 21st Century. Offering a rich overview of this crucial and topical relationship, Andy McStay:

• Explores the foundational topics of journalism, the Snowden leaks, and encryption by companies such as Apple
• Considers commercial applications including behavioural advertising, big data, algorithms, and the role of platforms such as Google and Facebook
• Introduces the role of the body with discussions of emotion, wearable media, peer-based privacy, and sexting
• Encourages students to put their understanding to work with suggestions for further research, challenging them to explore how privacy functions in practice.

Privacy and the Media is not a polemic on privacy as 'good' or 'bad', but a call to assess the detail and the potential implications of contemporary media technologies and practices. It is essential reading for students and researchers of digital media, social media, digital politics, and the creative and cultural industries.

'Privacy and the Media is a thoughtful survey of the privacy landscape. McStay reviews the intricate tensions and seeming contradictions to offer an accessible book for anyone curious about the contemporary debates in privacy.'
- danah boyd, author of It's Complicated and founder of Data & Society

'McStay's great achievement here is to confront many of the pertinent and complex questions about media and privacy in a style that is both authoritative and easy to read... His book will prove an excellent companion for all students of this fascinating and crucial topic.'
- Mireille Hildebrandt, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

'Clearly and accessibly written, this book is a great resource for anyone interested in the broad range of ways in which privacy and contemporary media are entangled and in the big picture of privacy/media relations today... I will definitely be assigning it for my students.'
- Helen Kennedy, University of Sheffield

About the Author
Andrew McStay is Professor of Digital Life at Bangor University, UK. His most recent book, Emotional AI: The Rise of Empathic Media, examines the impact of technologies that make use of data about affective and emotional life. Current projects include study of emotional AI, children and parents, and (separately) cross-cultural analysis of emotional AI in UK and Japan. Non-academic work includes IEEE membership (P7000/7014) and ongoing advising roles for start-ups, NGOs and policy bodies. He has also appeared and made submissions to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on the right to privacy in the digital age, the UK House of Lords AI Inquiry and the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport Inquiry on fake news and reality media.

Reviews
Privacy and the Media is a thoughtful survey of the privacy landscape. McStay reviews the intricate tensions and seeming contradictions to offer an accessible book for anyone curious about the contemporary debates in privacy. -- danah boyd

This pleasingly accessible book tackles all the major questions that arise in a world whose lifeblood is our personal information; liberty, choice, transparency, control. It goes to the "conceptual, ethical and legal heart of privacy". McStay argues that privacy is "not about isolation, going off-grid or being a digital hermit". Rather, it is about managing our online lives and controlling how much others know about us. This book persuades me more than ever that privacy is a branch of ethics - the age-old relationship between the self and the other.

Privacy and the Media' is not a set of neatly answered questions or defences of established positons. It is a series of embarkation points for further exploration of an increasingly critical area of study, with real-world implications for the nature of our 'datafied' selves.

The book will serve as a great introduction to informational privacy, not just for media studies students and privacy lawyers, but for any information rights professional needing a deeper understanding of the subject.

-- Iain Bourne
McStay's great achievement here is to confront many of the pertinent and complex questions about media and privacy in a style that is both authoritative and easy to read. He provides an excellent overview of the perennial debates and considers the implications on privacy of an increasingly data-driven media environment. His book will prove an excellent companion for all students of this fascinating and crucial topic. -- Mireille Hildebrandt
The only book that addresses the full spectrum of the innovation-privacy dynamic, ranging from advertising to intelligence to wearables. It is both timely and necessary; essential reading. -- Gus Hosein
Clearly and accessibly written, this book is a great resource for anyone interested in the broad range of ways in which privacy and contemporary media are entangled and in the big picture of privacy/media relations today. It challenges media studies to take privacy seriously as a media - and a mediation - issue. I will definitely be assigning it for my students. -- Helen Kennedy



Book Information
ISBN 9781473924932
Author Andrew McStay
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Sage Publications Ltd
Publisher Sage Publications Ltd
Weight(grams) 390g