Big Brother is a fictional character and symbol in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is ostensibly the leader (either the actual enigmatic dictator or perhaps a symbolic figurehead) of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling Party wields total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants.
In the society that Orwell describes, every citizen is under constant surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens (with the exception of the Proles). The people are constantly reminded of this by the slogan "Big Brother is watching you": a maxim which is ubiquitously on display. In modern culture the term "Big Brother" has entered the lexicon as a synonym for abuse of government power, particularly in respect to civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance.
Purported origins
In the essay section of his novel 1985, Anthony Burgess states that Orwell got the idea for the name of Big Brother from advertising billboards for educational correspondence courses from a company called Bennett's, current during World War II. The original posters showed J. M. Bennett himself: a kindly-looking old man offering guidance and support to would-be students with the phrase "Let me be your father" attached. According to Burgess, after Bennett's death, his son took over the company, and the posters were replaced with pictures of the son (who looked imposing and stern in contrast to his father's kindly demeanor) with the text "Let me be your big brother."
Big Brother Denmark was the Danish version of the international reality television franchise Big Brother created by producer John de Mol in 1997. The show followed a number of contestants, known as housemates, who are isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one of the housemates is evicted by a public vote, with the last housemate remaining winning a cash prize.
The show aired on TV Danmark between 28 January 2001 and 1 April 2005 who aired a 3 regular series, one celebrity (VIP) series and an "All-star" series before axing the show in 2005.
On 30 January 2012 Kanal 5 relaunched Big Brother airing its fourth series in 2012, fifth series in 2013 and the sixth and final series of Big Brother in 2014 that concluded on 27 April 2014.
Series details
TV Danmark (2001–2005)
Kanal 5 (2012–2014)
Spin-offs
Big Brother 1
Start Date: 28 January 2001
End Date: 10 May 2001
Duration: 103 days
The Finalists: 2 - Jill* (The Winner) & Nico* (Runner-up)
Big Brother Australia 2005, also known as Big Brother 5, was the fifth season of Big Brother Australia, and was aired on Network Ten in Australia, and TV-2 in New Zealand with a four-week delay. The series started on 8 May 2005, with housemates going into the House the day before, and finished on 15 August 2005, lasting 101 days. The theme of the series was "single, sexy, and competitive". Auditions for housemates were held in March 2005. In a departure from usual procedure, candidates were not required to send in videos of themselves as had been the case for prior auditions. Instead, the producers toured major Australian cities and conducted interviews. They searched for sexy singles that were willing to have sexual relations on camera. Promos for the show suggested that Big Brother would be different this year, and phrases such as "Assume Nothing, Expect Anything", "Let's Play", and "Think Again" were used throughout the series, especially during Opening Night. The winner announced on the finale was watched by 2.282 million Australian viewers.
Big Brother 2008, also known as Big Brother 9, was the ninth series of the British reality television series Big Brother, that aired on Channel 4 and E4. The series launched on 5 June 2008, and ran for 13 weeks until 5 September 2008.
The winner was Rachel Rice, who beat bookies' favourite Michael Hughes in the final vote with 51.3%. At the time of the series, Big Brother 9 was the least watched summer series in Big Brother's history, until the following series, with an average of only 3.6 million, down on Big Brother 8's by 0.3m.
No housemates in this series were represented in Ultimate Big Brother, a mini-series to mark the end of Big Brother on Channel 4. However Rex, Kathreya and Stuart entered to take part in tasks.
14-year-old boys ‘caught’ watching TikTok videos of Nigel Farage... Most popular. Robin Ashenden ... Now it looks less like a dystopian satire and more like prophecy – a version of Nineteen Eighty-Four in which Big> Brother has been replaced by Big Sister ... .
It is then Poilievre brings up the great English writer George Orwell and his great novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In Orwell’s dystopia, in the anti-utopia of the author’s creation, in the world of Big> ...
— O’Brien, “Nineteen Eighty-Four” ... He didn’t get everything right in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, either ... In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Party seeks to control all speech and therefore all thought.
set in a vast, darkened auditorium dominated by a giant screen entirely filled by a sinister-looking talking head, who is clearly Big> Brother (BB) ... And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like Nineteen Eighty-Four.”.
Not many books bring new phrases to the English language.Catch-22 gave us a snappy way to describe an impossible situation. Nineteen Eighty-Four introduced “Big> Brother” and more. But the legacy of Lolita is a bit more grim ... “WARNING ... .
It’s time once again for CelebrityBig> Brother, which, as you know, is a reality-television show named after a character in George Orwell’s Celebrity Nineteen Eighty-Four. Nineteen Eighty-Four is about ...
When George Orwell ominously wrote that “Big> Brother is watching you” in his dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” he envisioned omnipresent cameras planted by the state to spy on its citizens ... Big Brother, of course, resides in every smart phone.
Related. 15 Shows With Most-Watched Post-Super Bowl Episodes... 15 ... 14 ... 13 ... “Hey, Janice!”. 12 ... 11 ... This iconic commercial, depicting Apple saving us from a Big> BrotherNineteen Eighty-Four future, is now the epitome of irony given the company’s track record.
NYCCouncil just sold out New York — to stick it to MayorAdams... In his novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” George Orwell created the term “Newspeak,” a language Big> Brother imposed to diminish the range of thought ... On Twitter, Peterson wrote ... It already is.
George Orwell's classic vision of this threat, Nineteen Eighty-Four, actually came out 20 years after Japan's Peace Preservation Law had already termed many people on the political left as "thought criminals.".
George Orwell’s classic vision of this threat, Nineteen Eighty-Four, actually came out 20 years after Japan’s Peace Preservation Law had already termed many people on the political left as “thought criminals”.
Mark Johnson, an advocacy manager for Big> BrotherWatch, compares the technology to the writer George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" -- a portrait of a totalitarian state in which the characters are under constant surveillance.
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" was a story about the future where the government controlled everything and implemented mind control over its citizens ...Big> Brother manipulated the masses of people in "Nineteen Eighty-Four" through a form of media.
... chopper is audible in the background and it is also occasionally revealed as a dominating force that monitors and surveils everything, akin to Big> Brother in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Iosco County News Herald
05 Jan 2024
Iosco County News Herald
05 Jan 2024