Abstract
This chapter examines some of the narrative and ideological aspects of portraying the contemporary surveillance state in a scripted network TV series. The inherent ambiguity of the discourse of surveillance and security is highlighted using selected surveillance studies paradigms. As regards their practical application, references are made to Person of Interest, a show which goes beyond the generic confines of science fiction and crime drama in order to address the anxieties of the post-9/11 world allegedly on the brink of technological singularity. The chapter also discusses human and non-human character development in the series and draws attention to the ways in which the demands of mainstream storytelling may have undermined its subversive potential.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
This was presciently captured in the episode ‘No Good Deed’ about an NSA analyst who realized that his agency used illegal methods to spy on American citizens. The episode aired more than a year before Edward Snowden’s revelations surfaced.
- 2.
On the issue of participatory panopticism, see Mitrou, Kandias, Stavrou, and Gritzalis (2014).
References
Aletheia. (2014). Person of Interest [TV programme]. CBS, January 7.
Anders, C. J. (2014, December 17). The Most Terrible Revelation in Last Night’s ‘Person of Interest.’ io9 [Online]. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-most-terrible-revelation-in-last-nights-person-of-i-1672524228
Andrejevic, M. (2015). Foreword. In R. E. Dubrofsky & S. A. Magnet (Eds.), Feminist Surveillance Studies (pp. ix–xviii). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Bakir, V. (2017). Spaces of Surveillance: States and Selves Afterword. In S. Flynn & A. Mackay (Eds.), Spaces of Surveillance: States and Selves (pp. 245–259). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ball, K., Haggerty, K. D., & Lyon, D. (Eds.). (2012). Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies. London and New York: Routledge.
Bauman, Z., & Lyon, D. (2013). Liquid Surveillance: A Conversation. Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity.
Bear, E. (2017). ‘Frankenstein’ Reframed; Or, the Trouble with Prometheus. In D. H. Guston, E. Finn, & J. S. Robert (Eds.), Mary Shelley. Frankenstein Or, the Modern Prometheus. Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds (pp. 231–236). Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.
Bigo, D. (2006). Security, Exception, Ban and Surveillance. In D. Lyon (Ed.), Theorizing Surveillance: The Panopticon and Beyond (pp. 46–68). Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.
Deleuze, G. (1990). Postscript on Control Societies. In M. Joughin (Trans.), Negotiations (pp. 177–182). New York: Columbia University Press.
Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.
Frois, C. (2013). Peripheral Vision: Politics, Technology and Surveillance. New York and Oxford: Berghahn.
Fuchs, C., Boersma, K., Albrechtslund, A., & Sandoval, M. (2012). Introduction: Internet and Surveillance. In C. Fuchs, K. Boersma, A. Albrechtslund, & M. Sandoval (Eds.), Internet and Surveillance: The Challenges of Web 2.0 and Social Media (pp. 1–28). New York: Routledge.
Gan, V. (2013). How TV’s ‘Person of Interest’ Helps Us Understand the Surveillance Society. Smithsonian.com [Online]. Retrieved November 17, 2017, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-tvs-person-of-interest-helps-us-understand-the-surveillance-society-5407171/
Gorton, K. (2009). Media Audiences Television, Meaning and Emotion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hardt, M. (1995). The Withering of Civil Society. In E. Kaufman & K. J. Heller (Eds.), Deleuze & Guattari: New Mappings in Politics, Philosophy, and Culture (pp. 23–39). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Hendler, J., & A. M. Mulvehill, (Eds.). (2016). Social Machines: The Coming Collision of Artificial Intelligence, Social Networking, and Humanity. Apress. E-book.
Hong, S. (2017). Criticising Surveillance and Surveillance Critique: Why Privacy and Humanism are Necessary But Insufficient. Surveillance & Society, 15(2), 187–203. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/critic/criticising
Jenner, M. (2016). American TV Detective Dramas: Serial Investigations. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lacy, Mark. 2008. Designer Security: Control Society and MoMA’s SAFE: Design Takes on Risk. Security Dialogue, 39 (Apr.), 333–357.
Lyon, D. (2006). The Search for Surveillance Theories. In D. Lyon (Ed.), Theorizing Surveillance. The Panopticon and Beyond (pp. 3–20). Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.
Maloney, M. (2015). The Search for Meaning in Film and Television: Disenchantment at the Turn of the Millennium. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mitrou, L., Kandias, M., Stavrou, V., & Gritzalis, D. (2014). Social Media Profiling: A Panopticon or Omniopticon Tool? Paper presented at the 6th Biannual Surveillance and Society Conference. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from https://www.infosec.aueb.gr/Publications/2014-SSN-Privacy%20Social%20Media.pdf
Newitz, A. (2016, May 4). ‘Person of Interest’ Remains One of the Smartest Shows about AI on Television. Arstechnica [Online]. Retrieved November 17, 2017, from https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/05/person-of-interest-remains-one-of-the-smartest-shows-about-ai-on-television/
Poster, M. (1990). The Mode of Information: Poststructuralism and Social Context. Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity.
Rose, N. (1999). Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Rothman, J. (2014, January 14). ‘Person of Interest’: The TV Show That Predicted Edward Snowden. The New Yorker [Online]. Retrieved November 17, 2017, from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/person-of-interest-the-tv-show-that-predicted-edward-snowden
Sheehan, B. (2007, July 22). Dark New World. Washington Post [Online]. Retrieved September 15, 2011, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071902242.html
Stewart, G. (2015). Closed Circuits: Screening Narrative Surveillance. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Synecdoche. (2016). Person of Interest [TV programme]. CBS, June 7.
Szollosy, M. (2017). Freud, Frankenstein and Our Fear of Robots: Projection in Our Cultural Perception of Technology. AI & SOCIETY, 32(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-016-0654-7
Torrance, S. (2012). Artificial Agents and the Expanding Ethical Circle. AI & SOCIETY, 28(4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-012-0422-2
Tusseau, G. (2012). Panopticism, the Panopticon and Cybertechnology. In A. Brunon-Ernst (Ed.), Beyond Foucault: New Perspectives on Bentham’s Panopticon (pp. 188–190). Farnham, Burlington: Ashgate.
Walton, J. (2008, July 22). The Singularity Problem and Non-Problem. Tor.com [Online]. Retrieved November 17, 2017, from https://www.tor.com/2008/07/22/singularity/
Wolven. (2015, March 5). Fairytales of Slavery: Societal Distinctions, Technoshamanism, and Nonhuman Personhood. A Future Worth Thinking About [Online]. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from http://www.afutureworththinkingabout.com/?p=4786
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Krawczyk-Łaskarzewska, A. (2019). Person of Interest or Crime and Surveillance on Post-9/11 Network TV. In: Akrivos, D., Antoniou, A.K. (eds) Crime, Deviance and Popular Culture. Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04912-6_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04912-6_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04911-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04912-6
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)