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Government and corporate surveillance: moral discourse on privacy in the civil sphere

ABSTRACT Government-based and corporate-based surveillance have regularly been accused of violating personal privacy, an elemental right in a democratic society. In this comparative study, we examine how the institutional actor behind the privacy violation affects discourse surrounding the violations. Looking at newspaper and blog coverage surrounding two similar invasions of privacy – the NSA espionage programs that Edward Snowden brought to light alongside Verizon and other corporations’ use of a tracking code called a supercookie – we show key differences in the how media reactions to the topic are discursively constructed. Our findings show more moral polarization surrounding the characterization of the NSA and the perceived threat of their actions compared to media coverage on supercookies. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how neoliberal techniques of governance shift social perceptions of institutional actors and the potential harm they might produce in society.