Bac Anglais - Lieux Et Formes De Pouvoir

I’m going to talk about the notion of Places and forms of power by studying the topic of surveillance society (in relation to the forms of power so). Through examples of films, books and current facts, we see that the society is supervised thanks to many ways. For many years, the society is supervised. But news technologies imply problems related to privacy ? On the one hand, we will see the examples of the book and the movie called 1984. On the other hand, we will see the uses of CCTV and the social networks.

We saw a part of a film entitled 1984. At the beginning, the scene takes place in a movie theater. Many people are gathered to watch a film, which seems to be propaganda. The atmosphere is tense when they see a man called Goldstein they start screaming : they say “death, traitor”. The continent they live is called Oceania. In the movie, Goldstein say to the viewers they live in peace and harmony. But, they are in war with Eurasia and he tries to persuade them to fight to preserve the peace. At the end of the scene, the viewers stand up and cross their arms in the air. The film was made by INGSOC, a political party which it makes propaganda. On the screen, we finally saw Big Brother, who is a character of propaganda and he is the incarnation of the party in the eyes of people.

The film is based on the book 1984 by George Orwell, which we studied an extract. On this extract, the place seems unfriendly : the description of the street reminds us of a scene of war with rubble dust and no one daring to go out. Besides, everyone is constantly spied on. There is no forgetting you are being watched : the posters and the police patrols are ubiquitous. Life must be extremely unpleasant. Big Brother embodies control, control of society, surveillance. Through this film and this book, we can see a form of power with ultra surveillance.

Last few years, we see a new form of surveillance : internet and more precisely social networks. We studied a text on these social networks, from The Independent. The text is about the way social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo or others can be used against a person who up to then (jusqu’à maintenant) through the details they put on such websites were just for friends or family. These social networks allow to the Police to survey us because police can get information about us without our consent. In Texas, a driver involved in a fatal accident found his post on MySpace, "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunkaholic" among the documents produced by the prosecution. According to this text, some users lost their jobs because of the content of their web page. The journalist advises users to be careful. His objective is to warn us of dangers of socials networks.

Moreover, a recent study in the UK found there are now more than 5 million CCTV cameras in operation, that’s one camera for every 12 people. In an audio document, a journalist says we are always filmed : driving, walking, shopping … He says one person decided not to give a job after finding their blog.

To conclude, we can say news technologies imply risks related to privacy. On internet, in a shop, in the street, everywhere we spied on. The cameras or social networks are good ways for the police to know what the population do. But, we must find the right balance.

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