From the Panopticon to the freedom to communicate in the city space

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the possible link existing between space, particularly city space, and disinformation. The examination of some points of transition and change in the structure of technologies and their exploitation by power systems and power games will help identify some of their characteristics, namely control, domination and defence. The urban and territorial spatial dimension is a relational environment produced in various ways by the government practices and policies of a city. Transformations of the city space are set in motion by decision- making power, and these in turn are dependent on public opinion, which can be influenced in various ways by forms of disinformation. Citizens seek to trace the truth of information and therefore demand assurance from decision makers that their communication actions are anchored in reality. The state does not seem to be able to provide these guarantees due to the social transformation brought about by the profound change in communication instruments. In the conclusions, the study stresses the urgency to research into the links between city space and communicative action under conditions in which the phenomena of information distortion are controlled and assessed also with the aid of information technologies implemented to challenge the complexity of the exponential growth of data used as the basis for building public opinion without which no planning effort is possible.