Since you opened this page,
the National Security Agency has collected

terabyte

of data about Internet users

Do you feel protected or spied?

Keeping

Two opposite views in the debate on mass surveillance

an eye

on the Eye

NAME
NSA (National Security Agency)

CONSTITUTION

1952


DEFINITION

A secret body established in the US after 
World War II to gather intelligence, deal with coded communications from around the world, and safeguard US transmissions.

SOURCE
Oxford Dictionary

Through which

lens are people

watching the Eye?

A PORTRAY OF THE NSA'S PRACTICES
TV series talk
about surveillance

DEFINITION

Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people for the purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting them. [...] Surveillance is used for intelligence gathering, the prevention of crime, the protection of a process, person, group or object, or for the investigation of crime.

SOURCE
Wikipedia
Journalists talk
about mass surveillance

DEFINITION

Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population, often carried out by governments or governmental organizations, but may also be carried out by others corporations.
Conversely, mass surveillance has equally as often been criticized for violating privacy rights, limiting civil and political rights and freedoms, and being illegal under some legal or constitutional systems.

SOURCE
Wikipedia
TV series: a positive view

TV series portray NSA as NSA wants to appear.



The National Security Agency declares that they will protect national security interests by adhering to the highest standards of behavior.

NSA Website
A NSA fighting for national security

In TV series NSA is devoted to provide valuable intelligence on issues of concern to all Americans, such as:


TV SERIES QUOTE
“Terrorists have planned a strike against Los Angeles. NSA thinks it’ll be today”.


TITLE / EPISODE

24 - Day 2, 1p.m.-2p.m.

TIME

00:26:52


TV SERIES QUOTE
“A friend of mine is a headhunter for the NSA. They’re looking for analysts versed in cyber warfare”.


TITLE / EPISODE

Criminal Minds - Roadkill

TIME

00:03:49


TV SERIES QUOTE
“I just got off a conference call with NSA and Division. It appears there’s a nuclear bomb under terrorist control”.


TITLE / EPISODE

24 - Day 2, 8a.m.-9a.m.

TIME

00:27:23


TV SERIES QUOTE
“According to NSA and Interpol, Siravo’s enterprise has spread to drug smuggling in Mexico”.


TITLE / EPISODE

NCIS - Dead Reckoning

TIME

00:08:11

NSA: the emblem of protection after the terrorists attacks

After 9/11 the number of TV series episodes quoting NSA has massively increased.



NSA is mostly represented as a security agency rather than a surveillance organization.

EXPLORING DATA - Data represent how many times "NSA" is mentioned along with "Security" or "Surveillance" in the same speech. Dataset is based on 153 analyzed TV series (603 episodes).


NSA + SURVEILLANCE 23 times NSA + SECURITY 62 times

But is this

the whole scene?

Spreading the truth

Thanks to the Edward Snowden’s disclosures, NSA surveillance programs became a hot topic and the debate started to grow increasingly.




“You can’t have 100-percent security and also have 100-percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a society”.

Barack Obama, 2013





“The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. The vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting”.

Edward Snowden, 2013

Who rules the debate

The analysis shows that journalists are the protagonists of the online debate.

EXPLORING DATA - The graph shows the percentage of speakers emerged from Google results analysis concerning mass surveillance.

Can't load the graph
Newspapers:
a negative portrait

Most of the journalists write about the NSA and its practices in a negative way.


Interact with the visualization

IN FAVOUR OF SURVEILLANCE5,8% NEUTRAL29,2% privacy is a fundamentalhuman right22,6% surveillance must be immediately stopped13,6% surveillance is illegal11,2% 16,7% 26,7% 35,6% 42,2% 52,2% the world need to be awareof the surveillance programs14,6% tech giant must protect their user’s privacy14,6% 1-surveillance brings no advantages 2-surveillance has negative effectson society 3-nothing to hideis not an excuseto surveillance 4-surveillance isuseless to preventterrorism 5-disapprovalof surveillancetechnology AGAINST SURVEILLANCE65,0%
Headlines generator

mass|warrantless
Surveillance
is |is  | is   | destroys|kills|violates|impinges on|has |has  |causes
useless|backfiring to combat terrorism|corrosive|freedom|privacy rights|human rights|privacy rights | chilling effects|psychological effects| fallout





Headlines immediately provide the opinion journalists have on NSA: a dramatic, hostile and distopic vision.

ABOUT DATA - The visualization is based on the analysis of the titles of the articles against mass surveillance. The main elements of the sentences have been extracted and recombined to highlight the variations used by journalists to discredit mass surveillance and NSA.

Which metaphores to describe surveillance?

Sweep
Harvest
Glean
Gather
Scoop
Snag
Pluck
Swath
Trap

Orwell
Big Brother
Dystopian

Dragnet
Trawling
Tentacles
Harbor
Inundatd
Leviathan
Net
Snagging

Totalitarian
Stasi
Nazi Germany
PoliceState
Purge
Propaganda
Tyranny

War of Information
Invade
Blitz
MaginotLine
Hostages

Hemorrhaging
Implanting
Infect
Ingest
Inject
Stethoscope

Mining
Burrow
Dig
Goldmine
Scooping

Concerning

mass surveillance,

how much

bleary-eyed are you?

If you need more information, check the report Metadata in exchange for security.


MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC

NSA Files: Decoded

The Guardian


Top Secret America

A Washington Post Investigation


Citizenfour

A documentary by Laura Poitras - 2015 Oscar Winner




PROJECT BY

Marianna Caserta
Francesca Casnati
Chiara Cingottini
Giulia Sonzogni
Ilaria Tedoldi


FACULTY

Paolo Ciuccarelli
Marco Fattore
Stefano Mandato
Donato Ricci
Salvatore Zingale

TEACHING ASSISTANT

Matteo Azzi
Daniele Ciminieri
Michele Mauri
Azzurra Pini
Giorgio Uboldi



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