Summary: This presentation explores examples of various forms of monitoring, from lie detection and voice-stress analysis to neuro-monitoring as techniques for bypassing conscious strategies of manipulation or deception. It does so within the context of a broader interest in the social role and cultural portrayal of surveillance technologies in the digital era. It describes the portrayal of monitoring techniques as characteristic of an emerging genre of television programming that might be described as "securitainment" which instructs viewers in monitoring strategies and their proper uses. This genre includes fictional formats like "Lie to Me" as well as reality formats and even some forms of news programming. The presentation offers an interpretation of the role of such programming in the contemporary context of savvy reflexivity about the manipulated character of mediated representation in an era of ubiquitous risk. Mark Andrejevic is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland's Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies. He is also Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa. He is the author of Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched and iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era as well as numerous articles and book chapters on surveillance and popular culture.
