[ecrea] Call for Papers from Ethical Space: Sleepwalking towards Big Brother? The Ethics of Communication in an Era of Mass Surveillance

Call for Papers: Ethical Space: The International Journal of 
Communication Ethics

Sleepwalking towards Big Brother?: The Ethics of Communication in an Era 
of Mass Surveillance

Call for Papers
The unauthorised release of documents from the National Security Agency 
by dissident contractor Edward Snowden has raised a new set of ethical 
questions for the media, politicians, the national security state and 
the public. Snowden has revealed that, as a result of the pervasive 
nature of modern electronic communications, we have sleepwalked into the 
mass surveillance state, capable of documenting the citizens’ every 
electronic communication and much of their telecommunications and 
internet usage. This surveillance state is far more extensive that 
anything that could have been conceived by the Stasi. Yet the 
publication of Snowden’s material by leading news organisations has been 
challenged not only by the states concerned, but also others parts of 
the news media, the academy and the public in those countries. Some have 
found mass surveillance reassuring and others felt able to ignore the 
Snowden disclosures.

Ethical Space is planning a special double issue in the middle of next 
year to examine the ethical issues in this contested discourse. This 
could include ethical issues around mass surveillance, the secret state, 
privacy and the media publication of the Snowden revelations. Ethical 
Space’s editors believe the implication of Snowden’s revelations is so 
profound that it needs multidisciplinary response. In addition to the 
journal’s existing and established media-based community, the editors 
solicit papers from other disciplines including intelligence studies, 
political studies, criminology, psychology, international politics, 
history, law and computing on a broad range of topics. This could include:

• the ethical issues surrounding new concepts/activities such 
sousveillance [the surveillance of the state by citizens];
• the impact the collective knowledge of a mass surveillance state could 
have on citizens’ behaviour;
• the ethics of social engineering;
• the legality or otherwise of the collection of data by the NSA network 
for each country involved;
• the part played by ‘patriotism’ in media coverage of this global 
story. What are the ethics of patriotism?
• the special strategies (perhaps of ‘deep scepticism’) required by 
journalists dealing with information about the secret state whether from 
‘official’ sources or dissident whistleblowers.

Editors Professor Richard Lance Keeble and Donald Matheson have invited 
Paul Lashmar, of Brunel University, who specialises in the relationship 
between intelligence agencies and the media, to be guest editor of this 
issue.

Expressions of interest in contributing to the special ES issue can be 
registered by submitting a 250-word abstract by the 1 July 2014 to 
(paul.lashmar /at/ brunel.ac.uk). Publication guidelines can be found at: 
http://www.communicationethics.net/espace/index.php?nav=guide



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