Telescreen
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A telescreen is a two-way video device that appears in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is a medium that dominates the fictional totalitarian society of Oceania, being present in public and private spaces. Omnipresent and almost never turned off, it is an unavoidable source of propaganda and tool of surveillance used by the ruling Party to manipulate and control the Oceanian population.
~9 min read
Article
7 sectionsContents
- Role in ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
- Background
- Analysis
- Comparisons
- In other media
- See also
- References
A telescreen is a two-way video device that appears in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is a medium that dominates the fictional totalitarian society of Oceania, being present in public and private spaces. Omnipresent and almost never turned off, it is an unavoidable source of propaganda and tool of surveillance used by the ruling Party to manipulate and control the Oceanian population.
The concept of the telescreen has been explored as a metaphor or allegory for the erosion of privacy in totalitarian regimes, as well as in the modern era in the context of Internet- and cellular-based devices that allow for the surreptitious collection of individuals' audiovisual data, frequently without their explicit consent or awareness.