1984 to Now: Fiction Becoming Reality?
In the 2016 film Snowden by Oliver Stone, illegal governmental surveillance of the lives of private citizens via digital means (such as ordinary computer webcams) disturbs the film's hero, a dramatized representation of real-life whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden ultimately rebels against the government agency that employs him as he rejects the totalitarian principles that govern the agency. Indeed, the film touches upon a reality that has troubled not just Snowden but many people. The reality has been described by Paul Rae as the combination of "massive infrastructure, lightly regulated intelligence behemoths, and large corporations seeking to realize value by consolidating mind-boggling amounts of information to identify patterns of behavior" (335). Collecting "big data" is the goal of these entities -- and Orwell foresaw it all more than half a century ago when he wrote 1984: he even put a face and a name to the big data rich Establishment -- Big Brother. Today, Big Brother is applied by the common public with such casualness that the controversial aspect of surveillance and the violation of privacy laws barely registers -- or so it seemed until November 8, 2016.
With the recent election of political outsider Donald J. Trump to the Office of the President of the United States, the anger of the public regarding governmental and corporate overreach and corruption may have reached a tipping point. If Trump and the movement he represents can be taken as an indicator of something disturbing happening in society, the question this research paper aims to answer locates at least of portion of this disturbance within the specific field of media law. The question is this: Are loopholes in media laws and increasing media consolidation transforming our society into an Orwellian dystopia? The answer to this question could help to explain what we are witnessing today in our own socio-political realm. Trump has vowed to crush Big Media consolidation (the most recent proposal being the AT&T-Time-Warner merger) because such mergers are viewed as a "threat to freedom" (Yousaf, Rahman 23). The hypothesis this paper puts forward is that the U.S. is indeed making Orwell's novel 1984 more realistic than he could have ever predicted: loopholes in media laws, increased consolidation, infringement on privacy rights, and heightened sensitivity within the nation is taking freedom away from citizens and giving ultimate power to the government, as though the nation truly were dystopian.
Methodology
To answer the question, a content analysis is performed of contracts from Xbox, Sony, Apple, Dell, and Facebook, along with secondary research examination of similarities between the novel 1984 and modern society, statistics of declining literacy rates, increased surveillance cases, surveillance usage via X-Box Kinect/Computer Webcams, slang-shortened terms being added to dictionary over the last decade, etc. from articles,...
Layne', in December 1994, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner received a compliant that the Vancouver Police Department had taken a decision to block out the faces of those person who were being interviewed by the police in the program, "To Serve and to Protect." The complainant was KF Media Inc., of Vancouver B.C. KF Media Inc. who was the producer of the program, and it generally
However, that was not an option, and it points to the rigidity of the corporation and its rules. Harrah's defense of their policy is utilitarian in its outlook and its purpose. It stresses utility (beauty) over values or concerns of personal beliefs and personal privacy. A Harrah's spokesman for the "Personal Best" program noted, "Harrah's customers, people who are loyal to the Harrah's brand name, expect a certain quality of
Privacy vs. Freedom of Press The right to privacy is more important than the freedom of the press. A great deal of media intrusion is abuse of press freedom by solely aiming to boost circulation by feeding on public interest instead of determining what is in the public's best interest (Skidelsky). Courts have held there is no special privileges on journalists. The right to privacy should be protected by press unless
Right to Privacy Being a citizen of the United States comes with many benefits in comparison to citizenship in other countries. Through the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights we are granted certain rights -- the right to free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly -- just to name a few. However, despite the 27 amendments the Bill of Rights that guarantee American protections
Privacy and Abuse Protection Efforts of Businesses Facts Many workforces in most nations all over the world are increasingly becoming global. These workforces cooperate, communicate, and link up in multinationals and global marketplaces via web-based applications across countries and territories. The phenomenon of globalization has removed quite a number of differences amongst peoples and nations both in workplaces and in other areas[footnoteRef:2]. However, some questions have been raised on the origins of
As will be discussed, this has serious implications for security issues on both a personal, organizational and corporate level. A central concern is that, as the number of users increase online so does the potential threat of invasion of privacy in many insidious forms. This can lead to serious ethical infringements of privacy, such as fraud and identity theft. As Miyazaki, and Fernandez ( 2001) emphasize; This rapid growth (of the
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now