Synopticon

Mathiesen states this means that "the many watch the few" (qtd. in Bauman & Lyon, 2013, p. 68), and this has implications in the mass media.

Mathiesen talks about the synopitcon which refers to the bottom up type of surveillance. According to Haggerty and Ericson, this relates to Foucault's panopticon but "means that a large number or individuals are able to focus on something in common" (p. 618). New media and participatory culture allows the public to post their own materials of surveillance about other

The "socially friendly synopticon" is built on the guise of solidarity (Bauman & Lyon, 2013, p. 126).

According to Jewkes (2004), Mathiesen’s (1997) idea of the synopticism is where many watch the few, and this can be seen in the example of reality shows [and camera phones]. It is a ‘viewer society’ occurring with the panopticon where the top watch down and the down watch up (p. 189). There is a power in the bottom being able to show what was supposedly meant to be unseen (p. 190).

According to Zureik (2003), Mathiesen doesn't think synopiticism in the "viewer society" challenges or contradicts Panopticism, but it reinforces it and makes it worse. Although many are watching the few, mass media has few decision makers shaping the content which just legitimizes the dominant ideology (p. 41).

References:

Bauman, Z. & Lyon, D. (2013). Liquid surveillance. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Haggerty, K.D., & Ericson, R. (2000). The surveillant assemblage. British Journal of Sociology, 51(4), 605-622.

Jewkes, Y. (2004). Crime and the Surveillance Culture. In Media & Crime: Key Approaches to Criminology (pp. 171-198). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Mathiesen, T. (1997). The viewer society: Michel Foucault’s “Panopticon” revisited. Theoretical Criminology 1(2): 215–33.

Zureik, E. (2003). "Theorizing surveillance; The case of the workplace." In D. Lyon Surveillance as social sorting: Privacy, risk and digital discrimination. New York: Routledge.