‘Historicising the UK phone hacking scandal: the origins of wiretapping and early cases in the United States and Britain’
“The ongoing revelations of widespread phone hacking by NewsCorp raise questions about journalistic ethics and how effectively governments can protect privacy in a world of mass mobile phone usage. To understand the significance of the current scandal, we can look to the origins of wiretapping: the relationship between the telephone and recording technology dates back to their nearly simultaneous releases in the 1870s. Since then, as technologies have improved, wiretapping has became a favored tool in police investigations on both sides of the Atlantic, and the subject for several scandals. This talk explores the roles different parties (bootleggers, bookies, police, journalists) have played in the growth and sophistication of telephone surveillance. It contextualises the current UK scandal, showing how a tactic developed by and for police has been put to use by powerful corporate actors.”
Colin Agur (Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism) will talk about this on Tuesday 3 July, 2012 at 16:00PM.
This event is co-organized by the City Media Network and Sociology Department PhD students seminar series.
If you wish to attend, please RSVP at belairgagnon.v (at) gmail.com.
