Risk media and the end of anonymity

Hoskins, A. (2017) Risk media and the end of anonymity. Journal of Information Security and Applications, 34(1), pp. 2-7. (doi: 10.1016/j.jisa.2017.01.005)

Abstract

Whereas threats from twentieth century 'broadcast era' media were characterised in terms of ideology and ‘effects', today the greatest risks posed by media are informational. This paper argues that digital participation as the condition for the maintenance of today's self identity and basic sociality has shaped a new principal media risk of the loss of anonymity. I identify three interrelated key features of this new risk. Firstly, basic communicational acts are archival. Secondly, there is a diminishment of the predictable 'decay time' of media. And, thirdly, both of these shape a new individual and organizational vulnerability of 'emergence' – the haunting by our digital trails. This article places these media risks in the context of the shifting nature and function of memory and the potential uses and abuses of digital pasts.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hoskins, Professor Andrew
• Authors: Hoskins, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Journal of Information Security and Applications
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 2214-2126
• ISSN (Online): 2214-2126
• Published Online: 07 February 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 Elsevier
• First Published: First published in Journal of Information Security and Applications 34(1):2-7
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher