1.
TED (conference)
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TED is a media organization which posts talks online for free distribution, under the slogan ideas worth spreading. TED was founded in February 1984 as a conference, which has been held annually since 1990. TEDs early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins, but it has broadened its focus to include talks on many scientific, cultural. The main TED conference is held annually in Vancouver, British Columbia, prior to 2014, the conference was held in Long Beach. TED events are held throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. They address a range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative, TEDs current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher Chris Anderson. Since June 2006, TED Talks have been offered for free viewing online, under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license, as of March 2016, over 2,400 TED Talks are freely available on the website. In June 2011, TED Talks combined viewing figure stood at more than 500 million, not all TED Talks are equally popular, however. Those given by academics tend to be watched more online while art, TED was conceived in 1984 by architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman, who observed a convergence of the fields of technology, entertainment, and design. Presentations were given by famous mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and influential members of the community, like Nicholas Negroponte. The event was unsuccessful, it took six years before the second conference was organized. In 2000, Wurman, looking for a successor at age 65, met with new-media entrepreneur, Andersons UK media company Future bought TED. And in November 2001, Andersons non-profit The Sapling Foundation acquired TED from Future for £6m, in February 2002, Anderson gave a TED Talk in which he explained his vision of the conference and his future role of curator. Wurman left after the 2002 conference, in 2006, attendance cost was $4,400 per person and was by invitation only. The membership model was shifted in January 2007 to a membership fee of $6,000, which includes attendance of the conference, club mailings, networking tools. The 2017 conference will be $8,500 per attendee, in 2014, the conference was relocated to Vancouver. TED is currently funded by a combination of revenue streams, including conference attendance fees, corporate sponsorships, foundation support, licensing fees
2.
George Orwell
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Eric Arthur Blair, better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of injustice, opposition to totalitarianism. Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction, and polemical journalism and he is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In 2008, The Times ranked him second on a list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945, Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903, in Motihari, Bengal Presidency, in British India. His grandfather, Thomas Richard Arthur Blair, was a clergyman, although the gentility passed down the generations, the prosperity did not, Eric Blair described his family as lower-upper-middle class. His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service and his mother, Ida Mabel Blair, grew up in Moulmein, Burma, where her French father was involved in speculative ventures. Eric had two sisters, Marjorie, five years older, and Avril, five years younger, when Eric was one year old, his mother took him and his sister to England. His birthplace and ancestral house in Motihari has been declared a monument of historical importance. In 1904, Ida Blair settled with her children at Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, Eric was brought up in the company of his mother and sisters, and apart from a brief visit in mid-1907, they did not see the husband and father Richard Blair until 1912. His mothers diary from 1905 describes a lively round of social activity, before the First World War, the family moved to Shiplake, Oxfordshire where Eric became friendly with the Buddicom family, especially their daughter Jacintha. When they first met, he was standing on his head in a field, on being asked why, he said, You are noticed more if you stand on your head than if you are right way up. Jacintha and Eric read and wrote poetry, and dreamed of becoming famous writers and he said that he might write a book in the style of H. G. Wellss A Modern Utopia. During this period, he enjoyed shooting, fishing and birdwatching with Jacinthas brother and sister. At the age of five, Eric was sent as a day-boy to a convent school in Henley-on-Thames and it was a Roman Catholic convent run by French Ursuline nuns, who had been exiled from France after religious education was banned in 1903. His mother wanted him to have a school education, but his family could not afford the fees. Ida Blairs brother Charles Limouzin recommended St Cyprians School, Eastbourne, Limouzin, who was a proficient golfer, knew of the school and its headmaster through the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club, where he won several competitions in 1903 and 1904. The headmaster undertook to help Blair to win a scholarship, in September 1911 Eric arrived at St Cyprians. He boarded at the school for the five years, returning home only for school holidays
3.
Propaganda
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Propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view. Propaganda is often associated with material prepared by governments, but activist groups, in the 2010s, the term propaganda is associated with a manipulative approach, but propaganda historically was a neutral descriptive term. Propaganda is a modern Latin word, the form of propagare, meaning to spread or to propagate. Originally this word derived from a new body of the Catholic church created in 1622, called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide. Its activity was aimed at propagating the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries, from the 1790s, the term began being used also to refer to propaganda in secular activities. The term began taking a pejorative or negative connotation in the mid-19th century, primitive forms of propaganda have been a human activity as far back as reliable recorded evidence exists. The Behistun Inscription detailing the rise of Darius I to the Persian throne is viewed by most historians as an example of propaganda. During the era of the American Revolution, the American colonies had a network of newspapers and printers who specialized in the topic on behalf of the Patriots. During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era, propaganda was widely used, abolitionists in Britain and the United States in the 19th century developed large, complex propaganda campaigns against slavery. The first large-scale and organised propagation of government propaganda was occasioned by the outbreak of war in 1914, after the defeat of Germany in the First World War, military officials such as Erich Ludendorff suggested that British propaganda had been instrumental in their defeat. Adolf Hitler came to echo this view, believing that it had been a cause of the collapse of morale. Later, the Nazis adapted many British propaganda techniques during their time in power, most propaganda in Germany was produced by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Joseph Goebbels was placed in charge of this ministry, the 1930s and 1940s, which saw the rise of totalitarian states and the Second World War, are arguably the Golden Age of Propaganda. Leni Riefenstahl, a filmmaker working in Nazi Germany, created one of the propaganda movies. US war films in the early 1940s in the United States were designed to create a patriotic mindset, the West and the Soviet Union both used propaganda extensively during the Cold War. Both sides used film, television, and radio programming to influence their own citizens, each other, george Orwells novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four are virtual textbooks on the use of propaganda. During the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro stressed the importance of propaganda, Propaganda was used extensively by Communist forces in the Vietnam War as means of controlling peoples opinions. During the Yugoslav wars, propaganda was used as a strategy by governments of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia
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Surveillance
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Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people for the purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting them. The word surveillance comes from a French phrase for watching over, Surveillance is used by governments for intelligence gathering, the prevention of crime, the protection of a process, person, group or object, or the investigation of crime. It is also used by organizations to plan and commit crimes such as robbery and kidnapping, by businesses to gather intelligence. Surveillance is often a violation of privacy, and is opposed by civil liberties groups. Liberal democracies have laws which restrict domestic government and private use of surveillance, authoritarian government seldom have any domestic restrictions, and international espionage is common among all types of countries. The vast majority of computer surveillance involves the monitoring of data, there is far too much data on the Internet for human investigators to manually search through all of it. Computers can be a target because of the personal data stored on them. If someone is able to install software, such as the FBIs Magic Lantern and CIPAV, on a computer system, such software could be installed physically or remotely. The NSA runs a database known as Pinwale, which stores and indexes large numbers of emails of both American citizens and foreigners. Additionally, the NSA runs a program known as PRISM, which is a mining system that gives the United States government direct access to information from technology companies. Through accessing this information, the government is able to obtain search history, emails, stored information, live chats, file transfers and this program generated huge controversies in regards to surveillance and privacy, especially from U. S. citizens. The official and unofficial tapping of lines is widespread. Between 2003 and 2005, the FBI sent out more than 140,000 National Security Letters ordering phone companies to hand information about their customers calling. About half of these letters requested information on U. S. citizens, human agents are not required to monitor most calls. The StingRay tracker is an example of one of these used to monitor cell phone usage in the United States. Once the phone is connected to the device, there is no way for the user to know that they are being tracked. The operator of the stingray is able to extract information such as location, phone calls, and text messages, a lot of controversy surrounds the StingRay because of its powerful capabilities and the secrecy that surrounds it. Mobile phones are commonly used to collect location data
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Misinformation
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Misinformation is false or incorrect information, that is spread intentionally or unintentionally. In an age of technological advances, social networking sites are becoming more and more popular and these sites are an easy access point for misinformation. They provide users with the capabilities to spread quickly to other users without confirmation of its truth. This also makes more difficult when several other users can share or change data to accommodate their own thoughts. When researching these sources, it is important to learn the extent of which the misinformation will be disseminated, to what audience and these important clues can help Web sites know what plans of action need to be taken to avoid outbreaks. According to Anne Mintz, editor of Web of Deception, Misinformation on the Internet, look to see if information makes sense, if the founders or reporters of the sites are biased or have an agenda, and look at where the sites may be found. It is highly recommended to look at sites for that information, as it might be published and heavily researched. Readers cannot be gullible but cannot be paranoid that all information is incorrect, there is always a chance that even readers who have this balance will believe an error or they will disregard the truth as wrong. Libicki says that prior beliefs or opinions affect how readers interpret information as well, when readers believe something to be true before researching it, they are more likely to believe something that supports their prior thoughts. This may lead readers to believe misinformation, Misinformation is spread for numerous reasons. The next three sections explain how misinformation has spread and continues to spread as the Internet and other technologies expand, the Internet allows writers to write anything without peer review, qualifications, or backup documentation. Whereas a book found in a library generally has been reviewed and edited and they may be produced and put out to the world to see as soon as the writing is finished. A state may have official secrets, in wartime and even in peacetime, soldiers would be told only what they need be told at the time so that if they should be captured they would not divulge valuable information to the enemy. Governments might try to discourage curiosity about details that could harm the nation if they got into the wrong hands, to be sure, the state cannot deny even such information as casualty lists or military setbacks and cannot avoid acknowledging historical fact. The state may announce the truth when the truth can no longer harm military objectives—and must do so in a manner so that it can maintain its credibility. Failure to inform the public about this information could foster rumors and misinformation, an example to ignorance in the media can be seen when in November 2005, Chris Hansen on Dateline NBC made a claim that law enforcement officials estimate 50,000 predators are online at any moment. Afterwards the attorney general at the time, Alberto Gonzales, stated that Dateline estimated 50,000 predators are online at any given moment, however, the number that Hansen used in his reporting had no backing. Hansen said he received the information from Dateline expert Ken Lanning, however, Lenning admitted that he made up the number 50,000 because there was no solid data on the number
6.
Unperson
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In George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four, the fictional language Newspeak attempts to eliminate personal thought by restricting the expressiveness of the English language. To form an adjective, one adds the suffix -ful and to form an adverb, there are some irregular forms, such as the adjectival forms of Minitrue, Minipax, Miniplenty, and Miniluv. To say that something or somebody is the best, Newspeak uses doubleplusgood, the word bellyfeel means a blind, enthusiastic acceptance of an idea. The word likely comes from the idea that any good Oceanian should be able to internalise Party doctrine to the extent that it becomes a gut instinct – a feeling in the belly. Consider, for example, such a sentence from a Times leading article as Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc. But this is not an adequate translation, Only a person thoroughly grounded in Ingsoc could appreciate the full force of the word bellyfeel, which implied a blind, enthusiastic, and casual acceptance difficult to imagine today. Blackwhite is defined as follows, this word has two contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands an alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest. The word is an example of both Newspeak and doublethink and it represents the active process of rewriting the past, control of the past being a vital aspect of the Partys control over the present. The ability to believe anything, regardless of its absurdity, can have different causes, respect for authority, fear, indoctrination. Orwells blackwhite refers only to that caused by fear, indoctrination, or repression of ones individual critical thinking, a true Party member could automatically, and without thought, expunge any incorrect information and totally replace it with true information from the Party. If properly done, there is no memory or recovery of the Incorrect information that could cause unhappiness to the Party member by committing thoughtcrime and this ability is likened to the total erasure of information only possible in electronic storage. Crimethink is the Newspeak word for thoughtcrime, as well as the meaning to commit thoughtcrime. In the book, Winston Smith, the character, writes in his diary, Thoughtcrime does not entail death. The antonym of this is goodthink, duckspeak is a Newspeak term meaning literally to quack like a duck or to speak without thinking. Duckspeak can be good or ungood, depending on who is speaking
7.
Nineteen Eighty-Four
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Nineteen Eighty-Four, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel published in 1949 by English author George Orwell. The novel is set in Airstrip One, a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of war, omnipresent government surveillance. The superstate and its residents are dictated to by a political regime euphemistically named English Socialism, shortened to Ingsoc in Newspeak, the tyranny is ostensibly overseen by Big Brother, the Party leader who enjoys an intense cult of personality, but who may not even exist. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake and it is not interested in the good of others, it is interested solely in power. The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party, who works for the Ministry of Truth and his job is to rewrite past newspaper articles, so that the historical record always supports the party line. The instructions that the workers receive portray the corrections as fixing misquotations and never as what they really are, forgeries and falsifications. A large part of the Ministry also actively destroys all documents that have not been edited and do not contain the revisions, in this way, Smith is a diligent and skillful worker but secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother. The heroine of the novel, Julia, is based on Orwells second wife, as literary political fiction and dystopian science-fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic novel in content, plot and style. Many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, telescreen,2 +2 =5, and memory hole, have entered into common use since its publication in 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four popularised the adjective Orwellian, which describes official deception, secret surveillance, in 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. It was awarded a place on lists of Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching number 13 on the editors list. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 8 on the BBCs survey The Big Read, on 4 December 1948, he sent the final manuscript to the publisher Secker and Warburg and Nineteen Eighty-Four was published on 8 June 1949. By 1989, it had translated into sixty-five languages, more than any other novel in English at the time. Warburg suggested changing the title to a more commercial one. In the novel 1985, Anthony Burgess suggests that Orwell, disillusioned by the onset of the Cold War, intended to call the book 1948. The introduction to the Penguin Books Modern Classics edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four reports that Orwell originally set the novel in 1980, the final title is also a permutation of 1948, the year of composition. The novel is in the domain in Canada, South Africa, Argentina, Australia. It will be in the domain in the United Kingdom and Brazil in 2021
What "Orwellian" really means - Noah Tavlin, 5:31, TED Ed[1]
Definitions from Wiktionary
Data from Wikidata
