SURVEILLANCE AND PANOPTICISM: A VISUAL CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE SELECTED SCENES OF BLACK MIRROR

Abstract

The words surveillance and Panopticism become social theory and practice under the postmodern school of thought, primarily conceptualized by Michel Foucault. The purpose of introducing the theory is somehow to engage people under internal surveillance practices, imposed by state due to technological advancements. In this regard the movie Black Mirror reflects the same practice which is science-fiction series. The stance of the movie is to show and question the standard of human life, spending in a hyper and high-tech world. The living standard of people is under dystopian circumstances with reference to surveillance.  The series covers different episodes of human lives with multiple themes and subjects while the panoptic surveillance theme of the technology is persistent throughout the story of the movie. Therefore, the movie reflects the themes of panopticism which is taken as hypotext that transforms the movie to hypertext. The hypertext impacts are explicit in the movie to trace out the surveillance, creating a general themes and message which are brought directly to the mind of audiences. The research in this regard the research is based on visual critical discourse analysis of movie Black Mirror.