Panopticon gazeA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWP
Packaging Th e style and the framework within
which TV programmes are presented on our
screens: good-looking announcers or interview-
ers, titling, music, the tailoring of programmes
to suitable lengths; indeed any form of image-
making for a media product. The word gives
emphasis to the connection between the manu-
facture and sale of goods and the making and
presentation of media products. Stuart Hood in
Hood on Television (Pluto Press, 1980) refers to
TV announcers as the ‘sales people of the air’. See
lookism.
Panopticon gaze A metaphor used by Michel
Foucault (1926–84) in Discipline and Punish
(Penguin, 1979) to describe the exercise of
power through the numerous and often subtle
disciplinary practices and technology embedded
within modern Western organizations and soci-
eties. Th e Panoptican (see also surveillance
society) was originally a design, conceived by
nineteenth-century social philosopher Jeremy
Bentham (1748–1832), for establishments in
which people could be be kept under supervision.
Th e basic principle is that inmates, confi ned to
separate compartments or cells, can be observed
at any time but have no way of knowing when
and if they are being observed. Consequently the
feeling of being under constant surveillance is
produced, even though the observer will not in
fact observe any one inmate continuously.
As Foucault writes, the result is ‘to induce in
the inmate a sense of conscious and permanent
visibility that assures the automatic functioning
of power. So to arrange things that the surveil-
lance is permanent in its effects, even if it is
discontinuous in its actions; that the perfection
of power should tend to render its actual exer-
cise unnecessary’. Foucault argues that the use of
surveillance in the exercise of power and control
has become widespread and has helped to create
‘the disciplinary society’; further, that the use of
disciplinary practices to control the individual
within prisons, organizations and societies share
common features.
Contemporary examples of such practices
within organizations might include perfor-
mance-related pay, targets, monitoring of phone
calls, e-mails, deadlines and schedules. Th ese
practices arguably operate to produce a sense of
a panopticon gaze, which in turn leads people to
become self-disciplining through anticipation
of the considerable degree of monitoring and
surveillance of their activities.
These practices are potentially powerfulIn tabloid press headlines, name-calling is a
favourite device to put down ‘Other’ and conse-
quently boost the sense of superiority of Us over
Th em. When ‘Other’ is perceived as a threat, the
demarcation lines become more forcible; and
of course in sport, ‘Other’ is always the opposi-
tion – at which point Germans become ‘Krauts’
and the French become ‘Frogs’. ‘Other’, then, is
almost invariably those in opposition; those who
are diff erent in appearance or culture and are
seen in some way as a challenge to ‘our’ ways.
Outer-inner directed See vals typology.
Out-take Piece of fi lm that is not actually used in
the completed version.
Overhearing Kurt H. Wolff in Th e Sociology of
Georg Simmel (Free Press, 1950) uses this expres-
sion to describe how recipients of messages may
proceed, usually below the level of awareness, to
select certain parts for special attention, often
distorting them while at the same time overlook-
ing (‘overhearing’) other parts entirely. In short,
the human organism perceives to a considerable
degree what it wants to perceive. See cocktail
party problem; perception; selective
exposure.
Overkill signals See shortfall signals.
Ownership and control of mass media See
berlusconi phenomenon; globalization:
three engines of; global media system: the
main players; media control; murdoch
effect; press barons. See also topic guide
under media: ownership & control.
Oz Trial Th e longest-ever obscenity trial in the
UK, lasting twenty-six days in the summer of
1971 and centred on the Oz School Kids Issue
(Oz 28). The three editors, Richard Neville,
Felix Dennis and Jim Anderson, were eventually
acquitted on the most serious charge, that of
conspiring to corrupt the morals of children, but
a majority of ten to one of the trial jury found Oz
guilty of publishing an obscene article, sending
such articles through the post and having such
articles for profi t and gain.
Oz Publications Ink Ltd received a total fi ne
of 1,000 with costs of 1,250. Neville got a
15-month jail sentence and a recommendation
that he be deported (he was Australian); Ander-
son received 12 months, and Dennis 9 months.
See censorship; spycatcher case. See also
topic guide under media: freedom, censor-
ship.