Utilitarianism In 1984

Peter Jennings once said, “Whoever controls the media, controls reality.” Since the invention of mainstream media outlets such as the television, internet, or radio, the public has debated the legitimacy of released publishings. Those who are in places of power in the entertainment business tend to cover up the truth by releasing other information, as demonstrated by outlets such as the Fox News Channel at a frequent pace. In a time where everyone is so connected to the media, many people get most of their knowledge about the outside world from the news aired on their televisions. In George Orwell’s fiction novel, 1984, the citizens within his dystopian universe had a rather small view of the world outside of their country. Their closeted

lives were a result of what their media created, showed, and told them

In a time where everyone has a television, the broadcasted media controls the information that many people intake, which alters the realities that they live in - this is a result of individuals accepting everything that they see on the television with a blind eye, allowing the media to manipulate them into doing what it wants them to through exercising bias, and refusing to question the authority and facts released from mainstream media; the persons who are controlling what is on these television networks control the reality of the those who are watching.

While the group may be small, there are people who reject the information published in newspapers or on television. The typical reason behind this is mistrust. Once people discover that a news outlet presents false information, there are always viewers that stop watching that program. For example, in September 2015, Eric Bolling, a co-host of Fox News Channel’s talk show ‘The Five’, claimed that, “In countries where there are higher, more strict gun laws, there is more gun violence.” However, the popular fact-checking site Punditfact.com researched this quote, and found that almost all data suggested otherwise. Jon Greenberg, a writer for the website, explained that when looking at countries that have similar economic standings as America, the countries with stricter regulations had much lower gun-related homicides. The only exception, Greenberg stated, was South Africa. While the country has very tough gun laws, it’s poor status is likely responsible for the deaths caused by guns. “Bolling described a pattern that does not exist,” Greenberg concluded. Fox News, as well as Eric Bolling, have a history of releasing untrue information. The truth is, as of August 2016, an average of 634,000 people still tune in each night. With that said, it is safe to assume that most of these viewers did not look into Bolling’s statement, and accepted as fact. These people might use his quote in later conversations regarding gun safety, which would just further spread the misinformation. If 1984’s protagonist Winston Smith was alive at this time, one might assume he’d fall under the category of people questioning the information that they’re hearing. In the novel, Smith is more or less indifferent to the telescreens that surrounded him, likely because he knew the information was false. Smith’s occupation was in in the Records Department (13), where he would change and alter newspaper articles, rewriting the history of the past (51). Since Smith was in charge of changing what the newspapers said, it would make sense that he would never believe what any other media claimed. Once, the newspaper that Smith edits claimed that in his country, their chocolate rations would not experience reduction at all in the year 1984. However, a few months later Smith found himself editing the newspaper to declare that the chocolate rations would face a reduction of ten grams (50). Therefore, it would make sense that Smith would never accept what his telescreens would broadcast without question. In our world, however, countless individuals still accept what they read or what their televisions say without thinking twice, unlike those who are able to see the danger of doing so.

The media used in the United States is very capable of manipulating those feeding into it. A prime example is taking place currently, and will continue to until November. 2016 is an election year, therefore it is prime time for news outlets to talk about the candidates. As of August 2016, the two candidates seem to be Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. While most of the main news outlets run the campaign commercials for both individuals, news outlets tend to show extreme bias during elections and only provide half truths of candidates. For example, the news source ‘The New Yorker’ has proven to be mostly liberal (Engel). In an online article, the New Yorker displayed favoritism to the democratic nominee, while calling describing Trumps “..unending stream of personal insult, racist woofing, and misogynist bile.” (Remnick), yet fails to recognize the negative around Hillary Clinton. Likewise, another new source called the TheBlaze posts positive things of their republican nominee, as they are a mostly conservative outlet, and have countless articles with titles with negative connotations surrounding Clinton, such as “Watch Die-Hard Clinton Supporters Get Tricked Into Agreeing With Trump” or “For Trump To Win, He Needs to Focus on Clinton’s Records”, which also fails to show the downfalls of Donald Trump. This goes to show that most news outlets usually hold a bias to one group or another, which would influence their viewers to follow said bias, which would lead to manipulating said viewers into voting a certain way on election day. In 1984, the novel's government (The Party) has posters everywhere of their leader, Big Brother (4). Plastered everywhere was Big Brother’s face, forcing the citizens to either fear, love, or ultimately respect his rule. In order to portray Big Brother as the good guy, they would need a villain - which they fabricated. Everyday, Smith would take place in a ritual called the Two Minutes of Hate, where the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the country’s biggest threat, would appear on a telescreen for everyone to scream at and and express severe negativity to (15). The Party used the hate for Goldstein to create more love for Big Brother, which is a direct manipulation of the people under the Party.

Some people may argue that since something is on the Internet or television, it must be true.

They claim that since something is able to on these feeds, it must be valid, otherwise it wouldn’t have permission to be posted. When referring back to people blindly trusting the media because they have no other outlets, the same idea could apply here. The truth is, though, untrue things ARE able to be broadcasted on the Internet or television. The web is essentially an open forum for anyone to say anything, so it is advised that only websites ending in ‘.gov’, ‘.org’, or ‘.edu’ can be fully trusted. Television, however, is a different story. In an online article, Cynthia McKinney explained that while the American media does have a problem with omitting, misinforming, filtering, and over-exaggerating it’s information, it has the legal right to do so. “Courts in the US have ruled on many occasions that freedom of speech also includes the freedom to lie,” McKinney stated. She went on to discuss that some lies aren’t protected by the constitution, like lying under oath or being untruthful to sell a product. Later in the article, she refers to a documentary that she watched where two reporters went in to work for Fox News. After being told several times to lie, the reporters were told by executives of the network that, “The news is what we say it is.” McKinney ends her article by saying it wasn’t a surprise to her that more and more, people are turning to alternative news outlets for more accurate information. Touching back on the executive’s quotes, “The news is what we say it is,” one may notice just how similar it sounds to the Party in 1984 - “‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (44). This quote is explaining the theory of doublethink, a way of reality control enforced by the Party. Apparently, 1984 and the Fox News Channel are very similar in the thought that they hold ultimate control over the

media. Just like in modern times, the history told in 1984 isn’t true just because the Party said it was - this is a realization that Smith often dealt with. It is vital that people question what they hear, as well as who is saying it, otherwise they may be surrendering themselves to living with constant lies.

For the majority of the American people, our day to day lives are based around social technology, such as the phone, Internet, or television. The majority of our thoughts, decisions, and opinions formulate around what we read or see within the media. Thus, it is safe to say that the media has control over our realities. When going a step further, one may realize that those who control the media have ultimate power over us. In 1984, Winston Smith is awake among his fellow citizens. Unlike them, he has the intelligence to question what he hears, rather than accepting it or letting it control him. In both his world and the current one, everyone who simply takes what is said as truth is only hurting themselves, and feeding into the power of those creating falsehoods.