观看的正义?社交媒体监控对可见性权力的重构

The Justice of Viewing?The Reconfiguration of the Power of Visibility by Social Media Surveillance

监控和公平、正义、自由及人类福祉等社会和政治问题紧密关联,在很大程度上是由于由监控获得的可见性知识有被转化为权力的潜力。而各类技术的发展改变了以往相对固定的监控者与被监控者之间的关系。总体而言,以技术演变为核心,“看”本身经历了从近距离的、简单的注视或围观到愈发技术化的、“延伸式”的观看。媒介/技术在其中发挥的最重要的作用在于,它们几乎从根本上改变了“可见/看”的方式,从而影响了监视材料的形态,以及观看者与被观看者的观看实践乃至权力变化。这在一定程度上解释了相关研究认为可以通过监控技术向大众赋权获得“观看的正义”的观点。然而,本文认为,掌握“监控/看”的权力并不等于获得权力本身,在社交媒体平台这一力量交换的场域,可见性只作为其中的一支力量发挥作用,它最终走向何方还要考察具体情境、案例中的行动者如何互动。本文最后就如何挖掘监控研究的可见性维度提出建议。

Surveillance is closely linked to social and political issues such as equity,justice,freedom and human well-being,in large part because the visible knowledge gained from surveillance has the potential to be transformed into power.The development of various technologies has changed the previously relatively fixed relationship between the monitor and the monitored.In general,with technological evolution at its core,“seeing”itself has undergone a transformation from a close,simple gaze or spectatorship to an increasingly technological,“extended”viewing.The most important role that media/technologies have played in this is that they have almost fundamentally changed the way in which‘seeing/watching‘'takes place,thus influencing the shape of surveillance materials,as well as the viewing practices and even power changes of the viewer and the viewed.This goes some way to explaining the research that suggests that“viewing justice”can be obtained through the empowerment of the masses through surveillance technologies.In the field of power exchange that is social media platforms,visibility only functions as one of these forces,and its ultimate direction depends on how actors in specific contexts and cases interact with each other.The paper concludes with suggestions on how to explore the visibility dimension of surveillance research.