ONLINE IMAGERY: THE NON-STATE MEANS OF SOCIAL CONTROL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Abstract

In recent years, images of executions of dissidents have been frequently distributed online by various terrorists and vigilante groups. This paper focuses on the implications and perils of the digital-networked image and explores their capacity to function as mechanisms for establishing power, disciplinary force, and social control. It considers the ways by which digital-networked images can perpetuate unjust and undemocratic intention and facilitate the propagation of intolerance and vigilantism. Finally, the permanent retention of information and the perpetual irretrievability of digital-networked images on the Web in indefinitely shaming, punishing, and exploiting the photographed is evaluated.