Orwell Roll In His Grave Essay

Do today’s media hold a biased opinion? Political figure heads of modern day America have argued the subject of a biased liberal media for decades. The notion of the media being predominantly liberal is not unheard of because since publicly broadcasted news media first became common, the Republican Party was not yet one to rival the Democrats. The core argument presented is the possibility of a liberal media manipulating the American public and thus influencing them to vote in congruence with the ways of the Democratic political party. Thus far it is simple to see the media clearly holds a bias that is in favor of the liberal viewpoint. I believe the media should not hold an opinion because, it comes through in their coverage and thus

Manipulation through the media has lead to serious consequences in 1984 and the US today.

The interviewees themselves admit to noticing mainstream media bias. While there is no clear indication if the media is biased leaning towards the right or left on the political spectrum, each news outlet provides its own form of bias that it wishes to portray. The news holds power to frame presidential candidates and perceive them how they want viewers to, especially in today’s constantly growing popularity as America slowly decides who wants to be their next president. One my of biggest findings of these interviews were Spencer’s accusations that mainstream media is very biased and that he doesn’t approve of them. This supports the argument that the American media is biased in one way or another and that not all committed conservatives or liberals put their trust into popular news outlets. The gentlemen I interviewed strive for more neutrality in the media. America needs to improve its market-dominated news outlets so that citizens may be able to educate themselves further and better familiarize themselves for what news and journalism truly should

When Americans attempt to find the truth in the media, it is important Americans realize what bias each individual media platform has. In the beginning of television, there were only 3 major news channels. These news networks were: ABC, CBS, and NBC; also known as “Mainstream Media”. The mainstream media held views that aligned with American liberals and seemed to always side with this group and were the only news stations for Americans to view. Ultimately, since these were the only news outlets available, whatever views these news stations presented to its watchers, were the only opinions that the majority of Americans held. However, as time went on cable television was created and gave Americans additional news networks. In 1980, CNN debuted

Dictatorial government named Big Brother rules “the futuristic dystopian society” called Oceania in the novel (Gallant). The way of Big Brother dictating the society is to take over the media and create lies “broadcasting the propaganda” (Gallant). If the polices detect someone who does not believe the propaganda, they brainwash their thoughts. However, ‘1984’ apparently shows that “the communications and media can be used to control the masses” and it is the main reason that the government should not take control of the media. If we let the government to dictate the society through media, our own society will be a victim to a tyranny like Big Brother. We will lose the importance of valuing the truth information and freedom over a secure government. According to an article, it says, “we not merely accept all information at face value” (Gallant). ‘1984’ definitely warn us of the power of media “in its most extreme form of abuse” to be totalitarian state (Gallant). It shows us that the government controlling people to access the information will negatively impact the society. If we let government control media, there is a fearful prediction that society will lose value in truthful information, which in turn negatively effects society by controlling people’s knowledge through

In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, the media is given immense power, which it uses to deceive the public into thinking their world and their government is perfect. The government uses their power to completely control every word that the media prints. The media is set on such a high pedestal that the citizens’ hang on to every word they print. Today’s dependency on the media is not far off from Orwell’s prediction. The media is also heavily influenced by sources other than facts and truth. The modern news industry, similar to that of the Orwell’s novel, is heavily influenced by political and private sects, which results in biased news and counterfactual information.

In his article “A Farewell to Journalism?: Time for a rethinking,” media critic Robert McChesney focuses on the idea that professional journalism in America has been in a major decline—and if a solution is not agreed upon to save it, our democracy itself will be in peril. More specifically, McChesney attempts to convey the idea that government intervention is imperative in order to salvage professional journalism as a whole and save democracy in America. He argues that government intervention in the form of subsidization and nationalization of the media is required; he writes, “The future of journalism left to the market will likely approach what education would be like if all public subsidies were removed…. It would be a nightmare for any credible democratic or humane society…” (McChesney 619-620). It is apparent that McChesney believes that in order to have a functional democracy, a robust Fourth Estate must also be present. Throughout the article, McChesney defends his claim and warrant through credible research and analysis—yet he falls short at critical points, especially when he assumes transferability between European and American policies, attempts to quantify freedom, and fails to realize the true relationship between the free-press and the government. These discrepancies within the flawed research that he presents render his argument for a national media system unsuccessful.

In George Orwell’s famous book 1984, the Party runs the slogan “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell 74). This slogan is a common idea when it comes to The Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Truth is Orwell’s way of predicting both modern day media manipulation and propaganda because it shows how the media can and does change the past, present, and future. In 1984 propaganda is used to manipulate the population by turning them against one man, Goldstein, as a distraction so that the Party can do as it pleases. The Party is obsessed with the idea of having power at all costs, and obtains power by keeping the public controlled. Modern-day mass media and advertising is a reflection of

In Anthony Dimaggio’s chapter Propaganda, Celebrity Gossip, and the Decline of News the author protests against the idea that the press presents objective and balance within their reporting or event that they exist independently or semi-independent of government and are instead propagandistic. Through reliance on celebrity news, corporate media effectively divert attention from critical political media – manufacturing consent and marginalize dissidents through entertainment media. Mass communication media are successful and influential political institutions functioning as propaganda for government and in doing so manufacture consent through relying on economic forces, assumptions, and self-censorship without overt coercion.

Neil Postman, in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, discusses the harmful effects television in a society that is saturated by it (Postman, 29). As I read Neil Postman’s book, I was given a new point of view on the role of television in my search for news and entertainment. Through Postman’s writing I found that the consequences of television are not in the information presented, but rather in how the information is presented. In addition, after watching “Conspiracy Theory Rock”, a video presented on the television show “Saturday Night Live”, this problem of unfair presentation from corrupt television corporations was made clear through the depiction of untold controversies, such as presidential assassinations (“Conspiracy Theory Rock”). I contest that the problem with the corrupt presentation of television cannot be solved by revising the corporate control, because it is unlikely to occur due to the financial power the corporations hold. Instead, the way that television is consumed must be changed. The solution for the biased and inaccurate presentation of television involves changing the way that the viewer consumes the entertainment by critically considering the source and the circumstance that the information is being presented in.

Alterman, E. (2003). What is Liberal Media?: The truth about bias and the news. New York: Basic Books.

The dystopian society at the center of George Orwell’s 1984, although written years earlier, raises many challenges with freedom of speech and press. The novel mirrors numerous issues with the media that have arose today, and with remarkable accuracy, especially considering that Orwell wrote this novel during the the late 1940s. With the threat of Communism creeping towards America’s doorstep, Americans were focused on strengthening the government in order to withstand the Communist threat. As a result of sharp increases in governmental power that were “necessary” to defeat Communism, Orwell and many others began to see a vision of the future in which the government became so powerful that the freedoms of the people no longer existed.

Nobody can doubt that the role of mass media in the present-day life is extremely important for a society. Mass media aims not only to inform, educate, and entertain people, but also influences the way they see the world; it may change their views and, in general, mould public opinion. Except for newspaper reports, radio and TV broadcasts, with the help of the Internet people have an unlimited access to the most burning news and tons of important information, and as a result, they lose the possibility to evaluate the information flow critically. Despite the liberal activity of journalists, they are always dependent on political powers that are in control. Thus, there is a problem of news media bias helping to create necessary political spin in the society.

It is without a doubt that the Globalisation of the media has increased our access to information about people and events around the world. However, during the process it has also shifted issues on what should or should not be in the public domain due to media ownership led by Western media corporations. The media shape is reconstructing itself, forming a singular global body playing an essential part in our democracy socially, politically, economically and culturally. Due to this, the effects of globalisation towards Journalism have become very debatable to whether it is benefiting the practice of journalism or hindering it. During the course of this essay, it will explore the affect globalisation has on the media (especially journalism), the affect of media ownership and how new technologies have influenced journalism.

Noam Chomsky (1997) begins his critique of the role of media in politics with presenting his readers with the question: “What kind of society do we want to live in, and in particular in what sense of democracy do we want this to be a democratic society?” (9) He then poses two conceptions of democracy: one where the public has the means to participate in the management of their own affairs and the means of information are open and free; or the second conception where the public must be barred from managing their affairs and the means of information is kept narrow and controlled (Chomsky, 1997, 9). Admittedly, this is a strange way to define democracy; however, Chomsky (1997) urges us to understand that the latter is the prevailing conception that his been in that way in theory for a long while (10). Throughout the rest of Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda Chomsky examines American propaganda efforts and discusses how both major political parties use the falsification of history, suppression of information, and promotion of meaningless discourse to stifle questions about U.S. policy.