Inverse Surveillance

While surveillance entails monitoring practices of society from above, inverse surveillance involves citizens monitoring and recording the activities of authorities from below. Inverse surveillance describes the practice of recording facts or events directly through the eyes of witnesses.

Despite the concerns about digital surveillance, the debate on inverse surveillance practices and their effects is older than the advent of digital technologies and the concept of inverse surveillance. Joshua Meyrowitz addressed how the miniaturization of media technologies, such as cameras and video cameras, and their increasing accessibility to the broader public offer the opportunity to monitor authorities. In this context, the private space of political leaders is likely to become space public a lot easier than in the past, which Meyrowitz argues to be a condition key ...