This week I got to view both sides of the total surveillance society. in episodes of Bones and NCIS.
I've written about the latter before, most thoughtfully in a paper delivered at a conference of the Pacific Western Division meeting of the Community College Humanities Association. In that paper I argued that the "family" of workplace friends in NCIS serves to legitimate the team's regular use of the invasive technology.
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| Using Twitter to track a low flying plane on NCIS |
This week in "Under the Radar" they moved into the Twitterverse as Tim McGee drew on his knowledge of computers by having the fans of a rock band look for a low flying plane. As with every moment of increased investigatory penetration performed by the good guys, the use of citizens to spy out the bad guys was presented as having no downside, just like all of McGee's warrantless phone tracking. In the NCIS world, it's all for good.
(I'm wondering also if Twitter sponsored last night's show since the gang sold it like the folks on Bones sell Toyota products.)
On the other hand in Bones we watched the death of computer genius Christopher Pelant,
the darkest face of the surveillance genius -- McGee's evil twin.
(But I'm not sure I'll believe he's dead until I hear it from another
source or see his body on a slab.) Pelant was spying on "the team" and
killing off various friends in order to get close to Temperance. While
this story seems to play into our fears of surveillance, it locates the
source of that fear in a single evil, obsessive genius rather than
fixing it onto corporations and government, the real holders of power. Both shows want us to be comfortable with our caretakers and watchers being able to find us, wherever we are. They just use different methods to get us to accept the inevitable.
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