“An essential probe into the culture of state surveillance and its sociopolitical applications to evidentiary functions of all kinds in the process of mediatizing security. Covers a broad range of image technologies. Historically thorough, concentrating on the primacy of CCTV used in the London and Toronto G20 summits as prototypes of surveillance and the politics of control. Skilfully grounded in the scholarship of principally Baudrillard, Foucault and McLuhan. Confirms the importance of images in not only enabling but also legitimizing the use of power by the state. Required reading for law enforcement agencies, policy makers, think tanks, lobbyists, civil society entities, and citizens concerned about privacy, rights and freedoms.”

Donald J. Gillies, Ryerson University, Toronto; University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland

“Surveillance is everywhere, both as a reality and a topic for debate. It is lauded as a means of protection, criticised as an invasion of privacy, and dramatised in TV police procedurals. But what is it? How does it work? And what is its effect in courts of law? Drawing on everything from film theory to discourse analysis, Jeff Heydon explains all in a profound and important study.”

Toby Miller, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Murdoch University

In Visibility and Control, Jeff Heydon provides a fascinating examination of how the camera-based electronic eye reframes the juridico-discursive power and modifies the subject’s experience. Standing on the shoulders of three intellectual giants - Marshall McLuhan, Jean Baudrillard, and Michel Foucault - this book explores a variety of critical and ethical aspects of technological control, outlining an indispensable phenomenology of government surveillance in the hyper-mediated and networked society.

Paolo Granata, Director of the Media Ethics Lab, University of Toronto