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Introduction: Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity in Europe Read chapter Read first chapter

2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Solving the Surveillance Problem

Media Debates About Unwanted Surveillance in Finland

Author : Minna Tiainen

Published in: Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity in Europe

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter examines the way surveillance is discussed in the leading Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat after the revelations made by former NSA-contractor Edward Snowden. In 2013, Snowden provided journalists with documents that revealed the unexpected extent of surveillance conducted by security agencies such as the NSA. Drawing on Critical Discourse Studies and a Foucauldian view of discourse, this article understands media discussions following the Snowden revelations as discursive struggles where the legitimacy and future of surveillance are being constructed and debated. The article examines the ways the media formulates solutions to the problems posed by surveillance, and explores the way they contribute to the overall discursive struggle. The solutions appearing in the data are categorised into two main categories, next step solutions and direct solutions. Overall, it is concluded that solutions play a minor role in the news coverage as they tend to appear briefly and rarely as subjects of debate. This means that solutions do not make a substantial contribution to the discursive struggle over surveillance and, furthermore, leads to an understanding of surveillance as a practice that is difficult to change.

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previous chapter Analysing the French Discourse About “Surveillance and Data Protection” in the Context of the NSA Scandal
next chapter The Unshaken Role of GCHQ
Footnotes
1
New media, of course, further enable dissenting voices to take part in public debates.
 
2
Helsingin Sanomat uses various key words as identifiers in categorizing articles in its digital archive, and verkkovakoilu was a prominent one used in connection with articles referencing the Snowden case.
 
3
The excerpts have been translated from Finnish into English by the author.
 
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Metadata
Title
Solving the Surveillance Problem
Author
Minna Tiainen
Copyright Year
2017
Book
Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity in Europe

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53633-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-53634-7

Copyright Year: 2017

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53634-7_5