Category: Grade 10

Why did George Orwell write 1984?

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Eric Blair (better known as George Orwell, pictured below) was an author and activist who was born in 1903 until his untimely death in 1950 due to tuberculosis. Orwell is well known for his novels but was also well known for his poems, essays, journals, radio broadcasts and critiquing of other literature. most notably Orwell wrote the short story Animal Farm and the novel 1984. In addition to his contributions to literature, Orwell also fought in World War 2,  many of his stories (most notably 1984) are very clearly influenced by what he saw in WW2

BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, George Orwell

Orwell wrote 1984 as he was fearful that a totalitarian government would take over Britain and the U.S. and wrote the book as a cautionary tale, to discourage going along the same path that the book takes. he wrote the book as a way to help people figure out what not to do and what the consequences their actions may have

The term Orwellian refers to a governing body trying to manipulate and twist language to force people to think the way they think. (ex. contradictory terms such as the ministry of peace [military], ministry of truth [propaganda dept] ,Ministry of Love [torture dept], joy-camps [work camps] many people think that the term “Orwellian” refers to the idea of government surveillance or anything that they don’t find desirable

The novel 1984 cautions the world about totalitarian governments and their impact on the world. the book paints a brutal picture of a world where free thought is illegal and the government maintains control of every aspect of the state, the story cautions against totalitarianism as the effects (as illustrated in the book) can be catastrophic and terrible for anyone who is not in a position of power

 

 

 

Spoken Word – “Updated Problems”

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Here is my Spoken word video titled “Updated Problems” I hope you enjoy

Lyrics:

oh, news update
did you know that in about a year 2-3 iPhones will be released,
did you also know that almost 50,000 people will have died of overdoses?
you see the problem with this world is our tech is advanced.
but our ignorance has put us in a trance.
we think that if we can’t see a problem.
it doesn’t exist.

because while we are in the midst of a software update
Ethiopian children are feeling in the mist without enough food on their plate
You see people are suffering.
But we can’t see them.

We’re too caught up in what will happen tomorrow.
That we don’t notice what is happening today
It’s all, look at this new Artificial intelligence system.
Or “This videogame looks so realistic.”
We put so much emphasis on the advancement of technology.
And completely forget that there are people out there, struggling to keep a job down,
or working double shifts just to make ends meet
See, we used to use sunglasses to block out the sun.
But now we use AR glasses to block out the problems
Because our lives are hard enough, who has the time to help anyone but themselves?
Who has the time to fight global warming or help the homeless?
Who has the time to make the internet faster with fibre optic cables?
Oh,introducing the new Telus 8g lightspeed internet
Complete with the capability to beam knowledge straight to your brain faster than ever before.
Buy now
And what about the children growing up thinking bombing is the norm
And they deserve to suffer

And you want to whine about Netflix’s torturous buffer
I guess what I’m trying to say is that there is so much emphasis on advancement of technology
That we forget about the “last gen” issues
trust me i am a huge advocate for tech, (show some of my tech)
i just belive that we have preexisting issues that need to be addressed
before we focus on convenience
Come on world,
Do better

Canadian Public Broadcasting

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Public broadcasting is a free form of media that is available to everyone and funded by the government through a small portion of Canadian tax dollars. the public broadcaster for Canada is the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and some of their content includes but is not limited to radio broadcasts, live cable channels, video games, podcasts, documentaries, and streaming services. some milestones of the CBC were the first TV broadcast in 1952 (pictured below) and their first use of closed captions in a broadcast for the hearing impaired. Some advantages to public broadcasting are that it is effectively free and it is very easily available for everyone. some people may not agree with public broadcasting because they may think that since it is government funded their broadcasts are always pro-government and propaganda. public broadcasting could appeal more to modern audiences by potentially making their content more apparent. unfortunatly this generation has shown a falling trend in attention spans so potentially adapting news to be short-form  and adding it to googles platforms such as youtube.

Screenshot of CBC’s Television Debut:

The CBC’s radio office in Vancouver:

CBC Production Facilities

Sugar Falls Graphic Novel Word Cloud

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Here is my Word cloud based on what we learned today about the indigeonous people, this word cloud in particular is based on the graphic novel “Sugar Falls” by David Alexander Robertson and Scott B. Henderson. I hope you learn something.

Media Research – Battle.Net

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Here is my media research project, I chose Battle.net as my app, and I hope you enjoy it.

I apologize for the formatting issue, the works cited page is supposed to be a separate page but in the transfer from word to Edublog the formatting got jumbled and I don’t know how to fix it.

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