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Big Brother's Eyes - Analysis

In: English and Literature

Submitted By Shiralipour
Words 982
Pages 4
Big Brother’s Eyes – analysis
Writers
This article about camera surveillance has been posted in The New York Post on 2 May 2002, about 1,5 years after 9/11 where the use of video surveillance has become a bigger part of the reality. The article is written by William D. Eggers and Eve Tushnet. Both Eggers and Tushnet are at the posting time working at the Manhattan Institute where they are working on a book on how technology is transforming government. Eggers is at the posting time at the age of 35 as a senior fellow (member) and Tushnet is at the age of 24 as a research associate and by the way is a lesbian.
Readers
The New York Post is an American daily newspaper, mostly distributed in New York City and the area around. The intended reader for this newspaper is the common American, thus it reaches out to most people possible.
Language
The use of language in the article Big Brother’s Eyes is quite simple and easy to read and understand. The article doesn’t consist of long sentences with a high academic language; it is more informal and based on a reader-friendly style, which by the way gets along with the audience the newspaper reaches, i.e. the common American. Let me give an example of how the structure of the sentences is:
“Many civil libertarians insist that the only way to protect privacy is through prohibition: tear down the cameras. Ban government from using face-recognition and other biometric technologies.” ll. 10-12 p 46.
It is a good illustration of the easy readable style, which is generally used throughout the article.
Argumentation
In the argumentation Eggers and Tushnet in the beginning make use of a quotation by the House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who is against the increase of a society of camera surveillance, an opinion that is expressed in the quote:
“Do we really want a society where one cannot walk down the street without Big Brother tracking our every move?” ll. 3-5 p 46.
Eggers and Tushnet uses the quote from this high-ranked Leader to make clear that Armey ought to see it from a more positive point of view, that the surveillance are going to help us.
In the article Eggers and Tushnet appeal to the sense of logic by using statistics on how spycams almost have been an integrated part of all Police departments in America:
“Fully 80 percent of America’s 19,000 police departments are already using them, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police.” ll. 14-15 p 46.
The rhetorical device logos is used to state that these spycams are being used, not only in some police departments, but in most of them. It is a part of the computerized future.
Topic (subjects and opinions)
The main topic of this article is the society of surveillance, i.e. the American government’s surveillance of the people by using cameras. Eggers’ and Tushnet’s opinion toward the subject is quite positive, and that is because they want to insure the people’s private spheres against the governments possible abuse of these masses of video data, which is collected, thus the people can move around in the public without worring of being spied on. The following three examples about the government cameras have come to stay, is a good illustration of the writers’ opinions:
“But the future need not be so grim.” ll. 6 p 46
“We can live with more of them if we act now to safeguard privacy against potential governmental abuses.” ll. 8-9 p 46
“The cameras aren’t going away. Fortunately, with some care we can reap the benefits of these technologies without worrying about waking up in “1984”, “Brazil” or “Enemy of the State.”” ll. 27-29 p 46.
Eggers and Tushnet are sure that the government surveillance cameras will serve to be the people’s friend if it, to some extend, can maintain the private spheres of the people. If that is the case then the writers’ are sure that the Americans will not end up with a society for instance like in the short story “1984” as they refer to.
To have a chance for being successful keep and even increase the use of camera surveillance, Eggers and Tushnet are giving ideas to how it would work out the best way. Knowing the arguments against the use of video surveillance, Eggers and Tushnet suggest that the machines should do the watching meaning reducing human involvement and maximizing the help of the machine; that there should be limitation of how long the information is kept, meaning that tapes should be deleted after some time, if it’s not used in criminal investigations, in order to protect the people; that the video surveillance should go both ways, meaning to watch the watchers; and lastly to inform the public as good as possible about when and where the cameras are placed and for what reason.
All these ideas of optimizing the video surveillance make Eggers and tushnet reliable because of they being objective about the issue of video surveillance, and thereby try solving the problem in a nice way in which they are on the American peoples side.
Therefore the tone in the article is direct and reliable. Eggers and Tushnet wants to safeguard the privacy against governmental abuse, and that is why they succeed in getting the readers attention and getting the ones who might be against government cameras to change their mind.
Intention
That leads to the intention of the text, which for Eggers and Tushnet has been to inform the American people about the ups and the downs of the governmental camera surveillance, and then persuade the American people to agree with the use of surveillance, and prove that if the government will watch the people, the people will watch the government as well.

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