Reddick, C.G., Takeoka Hatfield, A., Jaramillo, P.A. (2015). Public opinion on National Security Agency surveillance programs: A multi-method approach.

From Digital Culture & Society

Reddick, C.G., Takeoka Chatfield, A., & Jarmillo, P.A. (2015). Public opinion on National Security Agency surveillance programs: A multi-method approach. Government Information Quarterly, 32, 129-141. Doi: 10.1016/j.giq.2015.01.003 Retrieved from [1]

Alissa Reid

The article Public opinion on National Security Agency surveillance programs: A multi-method approach, by Reddick, Takeoka Chatfield, and Jaramillo, investigates the American public opinion on the way the National Security Agency (NSA) conducts and collects data for mass surveillance. As a result of America’s influence within the World, especially in regards to technology, the NSA plays a vital role within the industry of government surveillance and privacy. This agency has been on the foreground of data collecting, especially in regards to mass surveillance, and it has been extremely prevalent since the September 2001 attacks. They have extensive capabilities to monitor American citizens without them being aware, due to new technology emerging in the field. Arguably it is now commonplace for governments to be able to actively monitory citizens without their knowledge, but this study aims to discover the country’s thoughts on this matter, and why privacy is still essential no matter what the government provides as a reason for mass surveillance.

Through the means of a multi-method approach, the authors aim to examine what the general opinion is on government surveillance, as a literature review was conducted and the results illustrated a lack of research pertaining to this issue. The authors state “A new theory developed and tested in this paper explicates the effects of political efficacy on creating greater citizen-centric e-governance” (p. 12). It is evident that governments are utilizing more e-governance, and the research determined this is fostering the formation of a different relationship between citizens and the government. In an effort to discover how this relationship is changing, and the opinions towards the NSA, tweets and a public opinion survey were analyzed. The authors believe the study of tweets illustrated the inclination of citizens to distrust the government and their surveillance practices, in addition to viewing NSA surveillance practices as unfair. Utilizing a survey conducted by the PEW Research Center, it became apparent many Americans are wary of the media encroaching the democratic function of the government, in addition to also having relatively low trust in the government’s motives. They found politically engaged citizens to be the ones with a more vocal and strongly negative opinion toward surveillance policies. This did not result in the desire to become less politically involved, rather it simply illustrates the need for the government, and the NSA specifically, to be more transparent in their surveillance practices. To ensure a healthy and safe democracy, citizens demand the right to be aware of the surveillance conducted on them.

A strength of the research is the authors conducted research in an area which needed to be further developed, that being America’s opinion on the constant silent surveillance being conducted. Research is constantly being conducted on the issues of surveillance and privacy, but there is a clear deficiency in research examining the perspective of those under the said surveillance. The authors state “A review of extant literature finds that the views of citizens on government surveillance have not been thoroughly investigated. There is a clear lack of systematic understanding of citizens’ views on government surveillance” (p. 129). As surveillance and privacy change and further develop, being aware of how citizens feel about the practice is important to know. Reddick, Takeoka Chatfield, and Jaramillo state “The findings…revealed consistent and generally negative sentiments toward the NSA surveillance programs” (p. 138). Knowing this information can assist researchers within the field through better understanding the impact of surveillance, and they can include it within their own research, to ensure there is an additional perspective within the research. It can also help privacy agencies, such as the NSA, to better understand what citizens are aware of, and how they can potentially gain more trust from the public who fund these programs.

Another strong component of the article is how the authors illustrate the important issue of citizens not trusting their government’s surveillance and data collection tactics. The researchers found the Twitter method illustrated how citizens perceive an absence or lack of fairness in terms of NSA procedures, and a general distrust/disapproval of surveillance practices due to not being legally correct. While the other method did not illustrate such a strong dislike towards the NSA, this research does depict a clear frustration among some American citizens and the surveillance being conducted on them. Clearly it is a clear issue having citizens not trusting the government and the way they conduct an essential aspect of their job. These authors do an excellent job at demonstrating how citizens feel about this, and why this is. It can be argued this is because of the utilization of a multi-method approach.

A multi-method approach allows for a comprehensive review of the topic, and because it is a multi-faceted issue, approaching it in two different methods allows for a variety of opinions to be heard. By using Twitter and a public opinion survey, it allowed for the research to encompass data from citizens who post their true-feelings online via tweets, and for the more conservative opinion collected via a stranger over a phone survey. The researchers found there to be an evident difference in opinions, due to the twitter users being more politically active and the survey representing the more general population. The difference in the data collected by these approaches allows for a better understanding of America’s opinions towards the NSA, and not just a one-sided analysis. It also allows for the potential to neutralize any limitations either of the methods foster.

In terms of limitations, this research did have a few weaknesses regardless of the strong aspects. Despite utilizing a multi-method approach, the sample sizes and formation of the methods were not as strong as they could have been. The Twitter sample size was extremely small and restrictive, with the researchers focusing only on the top 10 most active users. The original sample size included downloading 226,884 tweets from 83,253 users who tweeted using #nsa, but the researchers decided to only study the top 10 in an effort to be able to focus the research. Not only is this an incredibly small sample size, but it allows for a very clear bias in the research. Evidently those who tweet the most using #nsa, will have a very strong opinion on the topic, as opposed to the thousands of others who possibly had a more moderate opinion. Utilizing data from such a focused group is not the best way to approach research where the authors are attempting to find a generally-accepted opinion towards a sensitive topic such as surveillance. Without the use of multi-methods, this research would have been extremely one-sided and not a strong argument.

Another weakness is utilizing a public opinion survey, rather than making their own. Using a survey conducted on others not only means the research is not primary, but the questions were not formed by the researchers. As a result, the questions may not have been what the researchers intended for, and meant the data collection may have been restricted. The survey used was conducted via phone and as it was secondary research for these authors, there is no telling of the complete accuracy and reliability of those who conducted the research.