As my acquaintance
with Nineteen Eighty-Four increased, there were several aspects that caught my
attention particularly.
First and
more obviously, the constant surveillance to which the citizens were exposed to,
getting to the extreme of having their personal privacy invaded in their own
homes. I imagined myself being constantly watched in my own house and I
panicked, I would not even be able to brush my teeth or sing in the shower in
peace.
Second, the
loss of individuality of a person is another factor that I found interesting and
quite disturbing. Since the Party strived to maintain each member of its
society equal to the other in every aspect, the techniques to accomplish this
were mind controlling, such as the implementation of strong propaganda to plant
ideas in their heads, or the tampering of the records of the past, repressing
history, in Newspeak “rectifying” it. Thus leading to the last aspect that I
will mention.
Control. The
Party believed that by controlling the past they would as well control the
present and future, remaining in power. Therefore, everything was controlled,
from entertainment to architecture, including the media. The manipulation of
the media implies the domain of public opinion and the oppression of the human
mind, which is not that distant from nowadays.
I
immediately thought about the current situation with news media, in which our own
“Minitrue” selects the information that is portrayed in the different television
networks. Even powerful companies pay to kill a story that might be considered damaging
for them. Moreover, through the discrimination of information appears a way of
maintaining the citizens under control where there is little room for rebellion
and individual ideas. In short, you see what they want you to see.
For example,
what is currently happening with the teachers’ strike. If you pay attention, in
the Internet there are a lot of pictures and videos that portray this situation,
but when you turn your attention to the television, little or no broadcasting
about it can be observed, resulting in the misinformation and ignorance.
Finally, I
believe that Orwell was accurate enough to show dystopian issues that surround
us but to which we neglect to pay closer attention due to the fact that our
society disguises the reality that we are exposed to, isolating us from it. I
want to leave you with these questions referred to what I have stated:
Have you
ever felt the misinformation offered by television?
Have you
observed any situation in which the news media selects the information?
References
Bernstein, Gerald. The Architecture of
Repression: The Built environment of George Orwell’s 1984. Taylor &
Francis, Ltda. , 1985.
Orwell, George. Nineteen
eighty-four. Secker and Warburg, 1949.
I coincide with your ideas and I think it is interesting to see this perpective since I consider it's an active way of doing something respect to the lack of information that is taking part of our daily basis. Everything we read and watch passes through different minds and interpretation before getting to us. The fact of having information in all aspects is of paramount importance since is the way in which we can be empowered to any situation. I think we are all misinformed in a way, since we get information from TV news or newspapers that have certain tendencies. For those reasons I believe that we need to be smart and careful when it comes to look up information about a topic, especially a controversial topic.
ResponderEliminarTotally right! But I think the problem in this era of information and technology is the fact that we can never know up to which point one particular source is truthful and 100% reliable, so it becomes extremely difficult to know when we are being misinformed.
EliminarRegarding your questions, I believe that a good example would be when different tv programs show us the situation with Mapuches, in which they only show one side of the coin. However, if you read other sources of information, which may differ widely to their point of view, you will realize that maybe what tv show us is not undeniable.
ResponderEliminarConsequently, it is of great important as Camila said tha we need to be careful when we have to look up information or eve to think before take a firm stance regarding certain current affairs.
To end up with my ideas, it is worth mentioning that news media absolutely select the information not only for the sake of controling us but also because they are being dominated by others sources, which are bigger and are the owners, therefore, as they are the owners they select the information and show us what it is benefitial for them.