Jack Merlo-Coyne

9/14/14
Period 3
In the book 1984, the telescreen is a tool used to spy on citizens and rule out dissidents.
Though this type of intrusion seems extreme, it is similar to the use of the PRISM program by
the United States National Security Agency, which uses large internet companies like Google
and Facebook to gain access to the data of millions of Americans and foreigners. In both cases
the systems use video and audio to gather information about citizens. Additionally, both
situations allow the citizens access to entertainment as a way to spy on them. Finally, neither the
PRISM program nor the telescreen operate with the approval of the people. The telescreen of
1984 is similar to the NSAs real-world PRISM program in that both surveillance systems
provide information and entertainment to citizens, but spy on them without their consent.
Both the telescreen and the PRISM program give the government the ability to see and
hear those who they are targeting. In 1984, this ability is seen when the text says Any sound that
Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so
long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be
seen as well as heard (Orwell, 6). This means that the telescreen allows the government to see
and hear what Winston is doing when he is in his home. The same type of monitoring power is
enabled by the PRISM program, which is shown when an explanatory article by Barton Gellman
and Laura Poitras says The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the
central servers of nine leading U.S. internet companies, extracting audio and video chats,
photographs, email, documents, and connection logs (Gellman, Poitras). The extract[ion] of
audio and video means that the government can see and hear what people are doing if they are
connected to a camera online. The power to see and hear their subjects actions make the
telescreen and PRISM very similar.

Jack Merlo-Coyne
9/14/14
Period 3
Another similarity between the telescreens ever-watchful eye and the PRISM programs
far-reaching online access is that both programs, while spying on the citizens, also give them
access to information and entertainment in some way that hooks the citizens in. 1984 shows this
when it explains that the telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously, (Orwell, 6)
meaning that, while looking at the people in front of it, the telescreen also played propaganda
and gave news reports. The PRISM programs close interrelationship with companies like
Facebook and Google make it so that a similar exchange occurs in real life. According to
Gellman, The way the NSA extracts what it wants [is] Collection directly from the servers
of these U.S. services providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype,
Youtube, Apple. Because PRISM operates through all of these companies, users are forced to
use the websites and risk surveillance or to not use the websites and lose all of the valuable
services that they provide in the areas of entertainment and information. The exchange of
entertainment for information as a way to keep citizens hooked and easily spied upon is a trait
that both the PRISM program and the telescreen share.
The most striking, and possibly troubling aspect of the PRISM program and the
telescreen is that neither methods of surveillance operate with the approval, or in the case of the
PRISM program, knowledge of the citizenry. However, the two governments use different
methods to achieve this same goal. In 1984, the telescreen could be dimmed, but there was no
way of shutting it off completely (Orwell, 6). Because they could not shut it off, the citizens
could never stop the government from spying on them. PRISM used a different approach to
prevent popular objection. PRISM was launched from [a] secret program of warrantless
domestic surveillance (Gellman, Poitras), which means that, because nobody knew about it,

Jack Merlo-Coyne
9/14/14
Period 3
nobody could prevent it or object to it. Though the methods are different, the results are the
same, and both the telescreen and the PRISM program spy upon an unwilling populace.
Though the brutal, oppressive government of George Orwells 1984 is different from our
own, both use similar methods of gathering information of those they deem a threat, through the
telescreen and the NSAs PRISM program. In both of the surveillance methods, the government
can see and hear what people are saying. The telescreen and the PRISM program also use
entertainment and information as a way to reel people in and keep them under surveillance. Also,
though they go about it in distinctly different ways, both the telescreen and PRISM operate
without the consent of those whose information they gather. The PRISM program of the NSA is
in many ways like the telescreen used by Ingsoc, and this similarity is a sign that the two
governments are not as different as we would like them to be.