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Cryptographic Media

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Second International Handbook of Internet Research

Abstract

Cryptographic technologies have become an essential and even ubiquitous component of online infrastructure, yet they are rarely acknowledged outside of technical literatures. This chapter contributes questions about the impact of these technologies on daily life, and suggests five threads for future analysis: encryption, obfuscation and hiding, code, language, and epistemology. While each has a technical side, in this chapter they are presented at the intersections with society, politics, and culture. In many cases, revitalizing these intersections requires looking for historical examples, when for instance, prior to the twentieth century, the technologies and our understanding of them were more fluid and integrated with cultural and scientific pursuits. The common dimension running through this history and its revitalization is a conception of cryptography and its cognate technologies as “media”.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information School, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Quinn DuPont

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  1. Quinn DuPont
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Correspondence to Quinn DuPont .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Jeremy Hunsinger

  2. IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lisbeth Klastrup

  3. Bldg. 209, 3rd Floor, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Autralia, Australia

    Matthew M. Allen

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DuPont, Q. (2018). Cryptographic Media. In: Hunsinger, J., Klastrup, L., Allen, M. (eds) Second International Handbook of Internet Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1202-4_34-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1202-4_34-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1202-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1202-4

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