Communication Research and the Study of Surveillance

This paper outlines some of the productive points of intersection between communications research and the study of surveillance. It highlights some of the contributions that the field of communications has made to the emerging interdisciplinary field of surveillance studies, and suggests some possible lines of research in the areas of consumer surveillance and interactive media, police communications and surveillance, closed-circuit television, media representations of surveillance, surveillance and the ritual model of communication, and surveillance and social inequality. The unique contributions made by the authors included in this special issue are also noted. It is by no means an exhaustive overview.