Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture [Hardcover]

Clay Calvert (Author)

Book Description

Series: Critical Studies in Communication and in Cultural Industries | Publication Date: October 1, 2000

From 24-hour-a-day "girl cam" sites on the World Wide Web to trash-talk television shows like "Jerry Springer" and reality television programs like "Cops," we've become a world of voyeurs. We like to watch others as their intimate moments, their private facts, their secrets, and their dirty laundry are revealed.Voyeur Nation traces the evolution and forces driving what the author calls the 'voyeurism value.' Calvert argues that although spectatorship and sensationalism are far from new phenomena, today a confluence of factors-legal, social, political, and technological-pushes voyeurism to the forefront of our image-based world.The First Amendment increasingly is called on to safeguard our right, via new technologies and recording devices, to peer into the innermost details of others' lives without fear of legal repercussion. But Calvert argues that the voyeurism value contradicts the value of discourse in democracy and First Amendment theory, since voyeurism by its very nature involves merely watching without interacting or participating. It privileges watching and viewing media images over participating and interacting in democracy.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Calvert examines the history and modern social forces behind the cultural phenomenon that he calls "mediated voyeurism." He focuses on popular daytime, tell-all television programs (Jerry Springer), real-time law enforcement programs (Cops), news programs (20/20), and recent hits (Survivor and Big Brother). Although many such programs seem "dumbed down," Calvert contrasts these programs' shared communal experiences with the disengagement of viewing without participating. He notes the confluence of technological, social, legal, and political factors that drive this mediated voyeurism, supported by traditional first amendment arguments even as the privacy of unwilling participants is invaded. Calvert analyzes how first amendment and democratic principles have shifted to significantly boosting the profit lines of media conglomerates with little concern for the common good. The press as a watchdog has lost its bite through alliances that overbalance "news" interests at the expense of law enforcement issues. This is an important analysis of American low cultural forces that has more than trivial significance. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Clay Calvert is an assistant professor of communications and law and co-director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at Pennsylvania State University. He has published over twenty law journal articles in the past four years on First Amendment issues affecting the media, journalism, and advertising. He has a Juris Doctor from the University of the Pacific and a Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford University. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813366275
• ISBN-13: 978-0813366272
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,587,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beagle says..., January 22, 2001

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beagle47 "beagle47" (Fresno, California United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture (Hardcover)

Mr. Calvert is clearly an authority on media law. The book is so well-written as to be accessible anyone who is interested in communications law. Contains a comprehensive discussion of the law, yet one which is easily understood by all. High marks for the author's use of plain language to convey ideas which could otherwise be quite difficult to understand. Worthwhile reading for the practitioner or layperson.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, but somewhat tedious, September 2, 2003

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T Ellis (High Point, NC USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture (Hardcover)

Clay Calvert defines mediated voyeurism as "the consumption of revealing images of and information about others' apparently real and unguarded lives, often yet not always for purposes of entertainment but frequently at the expense of privacy and disclosure, through the means of mass media and Internet."

The author has an exquisite grasp of the obvious (or maybe I've just read too many books on this subject), revealing in the first half of the book such profound truths as: the more willing people are to give up control of information that affects them, the more mediated voyeurism thrives; and, TV news has become a commodity used to gather an audience to sell to advertisers.

The book makes some interesting points on media coverage of politics, for instance, by focusing on politicians' strategies (for staying at the top of the race) instead of substantive issues, the media contributes to the politics-as-voyeurism phenomenon and alienates voters. Also interesting was Calvert's discussion of the case law related to voyeurism. His description of some of the pertinent and precedent-setting cases was enlightening and alarming.

On a more negative note, the book is self-referential to the point of absurdity. The author's habit of incessantly telling the reader what he just told him, what he told him back in chapter 2, and what he's going to tell him in the next section or chapter becomes very irritating.

And one bit of false advertising: in the introduction Calvert promises that the book "can at times be sarcastic, if not flippant, in tone." I noted one (possibly two) instances of sarcasm and none of flippancy. It would be more accurate to say "the book can at times be didactic, if not tedious, in tone.

If this book interested you, you may also be interested in Tuning in Trouble by Heaton and Wilson. It only deals with talk shows, and it is not as in-depth as this book, but it is a bit more readable.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to Global Voyeurism, January 13, 2004

By 

Ralph D. Berenger (Sharjah, United Arab Emirates) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture (Hardcover)

As transnational broadcasters rush toward privatization, calls for more democratization and transparency by more laissez-faire governments, Clay Calvert's Voyeur Nation should be thoughtfully considered to prevent a "race to the bottom" by sacrificing cultural tastes in the pursuit of greater audience numbers.
A lawyer as well as a professor of law and communications and co-director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at Pennsylvania State University. The latter credit is important because Calvert does not believe the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution-an international model for liberalized news and entertainment-should not protect "mediated voyeurism" rampant in the U.S., Asia and Europe. The argument is as important as it is provocative.
Calvert lays the groundwork for his argument with a recitation of what the mass media have done to damage the concept of privacy rights, often willingly abdicated by "victims" seeking fame and fortune, their fleeting Warholian 15 minutes of recognition-both in front of and behind the hidden camera.
The author decries the rise of "reality" shows on U.S. and European television where cameras go along and confront various miscreants and straying spouses. Those caught in the glare of camera lights almost never are advised of their rights to an attorney and often react badly-which, of course, is "good" television. In some cases, especially on tell-all/show-all programs like the Jerry Springer Show or the Ricki Lake Show, participants are asked to bare their most private thoughts on syndicated TV. The result is a growing class of exhibitionists performing in real life for a growing class of audience voyeurs, he says.
Calvert cites uses and gratifications theories as a reason people tune into such programs as The World's Most Amazing Videos, Cheating Spouses Caught on Tape, Cops, The Osbournes (a new entry into the voyeurism field where the camera follows rocker Ozzie Osbourne and his family around all day long-and showed in real time the family's reactions to the wife's newly diagnosed cancer) and dozens more. This voyeurism even has a game-show flavor as demonstrated last summer when Maury Povich and Montel Williams each aired a series of shows on "Who's the Father?" Using DNA testing, unwed mothers with babes in arms found out which among three former lovers were actually the father of her baby while a cheering live studio audience made their own guesses. The programs drew huge audiences, which, in the Western media tradition, resulted in huge company profits. Legal scholar Robert Bork must have had programs like these in mind when he wrote Slouching Towards Gomorrah.
The Internet has pushed the envelope on voyeurism, Calvert writes. Some of the more popular sites on the web are those featuring webcams or surveillance cameras that catch participants in various aspects of day-to-day, from bed and board to bath in real-life Truman Shows, including their most intimate minutes. Sexual voyeurism is one of the more popular Internet activities worldwide, whether some cultures are willing or not to admit it, he says.
The public's right to know is limited to officialdom, not to their neighbor's bedroom behind closed curtains. While "peeping" might be a human "want" it is not a human "need." Mediated voyuerism involving the space band spectrum opens the door for regulation, he says. In that regard, Calvert might be suggesting a role for governments or critical discussion by community in the mediation process. Communitarians such as Robert Putnam and Amitai Etzioni would heartily agree since they would consider mediated voyeurism contrary to the best interests of a civil, community-based society.
While building a strong case of greater government influence in broadcasting of programs that violate privacy rights, Calvert limps out of the argument at the end, suggesting instead self-governance by media outlets by redefining broadcasting ethos and codes of conduct.
Despite the weak ending, Calvert's work raises key issues for transnational broadcasters and is worth a read by students seeking an understanding of what could happen to transnational programming if ratings races become their raisons d'etre.