Anonymous dissent: Protest, privacy, and photographic surveillance in digital media

Abstract

Protesters in recent years have been making a somewhat novel demand: they are asking journalists to blur their faces in news coverage of public demonstrations. This article investigates this demand to explore how new surveillance technologies and the political economy of media are complicating the ethics of visual journalism. Reviewing 26 articles from news outlets, trade publications, and blogs published between May 2020 and October 2024 that discussed protesters’ demand, the study considers three themes: visibility and surveillance in digital media; the ethical contradictions that visual journalists navigate while documenting dissent; and the relationships among journalists, movements, and political-economic power structures. The article contrasts Enlightenment ideals with an ethic of care to understand journalists’ views on transparency and truth, concluding that the uneven power dynamics among protesters, journalists and the state raise important questions about the documentation, preservation and circulation of dissent.