British Journalism In George Orwell's Times

8/13/2019 British Journalism In George Orwell's Times

1/6

2013

Christoph Schattleitner

Northumbria University,

Newcastle upon Tyne

Module: Classic Journalism, Classic

Journalists

[BRITISH JOURNALISM IN

GEORGE ORWELLS TIMES]This essay will deal about George Orwell and the political and economic circumstances in which

journalism was practiced during his lifetime. Furthermore this text will explore his contribution to

advance the quality of journalism.


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1 British Journalism in George Orwells Times| Christoph Schattleitner

Table of ContentsShort biography about George Orwell .................................................................................................... 1

Britain in the first half of the 20th

century .............................................................................................. 2

British Propaganda during World War II ............................................................................................. 3

British journalism and objectivity in the 20th

Century ......................................................................... 3

George Orwells contribution to advance the quality of journalism...................................................... 4

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................ 5

Short biography about George Orwell

For a better understanding of the following essay some hard facts about George Orwell and his

biography need to be mentioned.

George Orwell was born as Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 in Bengal, part

of the British-occupied India. He was the second child of Richard

Walmesley Blair and Ida Mabel Limouzin, who worked in the army,

administration and trade. The family Blair came to England in 1907,

whereas father Richard returned to his civil service post in India in

the autumn. Eric Blair stayed with his mother and sister in England.

(Williams, R. 1971)

At the age of eight, he was sent to a private preparatory school in

Sussex, where he was most unhappy there. (ODoherty, J. 1974)

In 1922 Eric Blair joined the Indian Imperial Police and was trained

in Burma. He served there for five years; later calling it an unsuitable profession (Williams, R. 1971,

pp.8) Orwell spent two-third of his life in Britain, especially because of that his growing-up has been

commonly described as normal and orthodox. (Williams, R. 1971, pp.8) He decided early to become

a writer. After various publications he wrote Down and Out in Paris and Londonin 1933, his first text

published under his adopted name George Orwell. In 1936 Spanish Civil War broke out and Orwell

travelled there as war correspondent; enlisted in a Marxist controlled group on the Republican side.

In 1937 he got seriously wounded in the throat by a Fascist snipers bullet. Then he returned to

England. (Marin, A. 1974)

Beside publications on a regular basis, his mother died in 1943 and his wife in 1945. In 1948 he

became seriously ill with tuberculosis. In 1950 George Orwell died. (ODoherty, J.1974)


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Britain in the first half of the 20thcentury

Although George Orwell was born in India and lived in Burma, France and Spain (see short biography)

he spent most of his lifetime in Britain. Therefore this essay will deal mainly with the political and

economic circumstances there.

The United Kingdom was not only the first industrialised country in the world, but also the worlds

foremost poweralso known as hegemonic state. (Ferguson, N. 2004) The industrialisation in the

19th

century transformed the country. But the beginning of the 20th

century was also characterized

by the First World War from 1914 to 1918. When war started, eleven year-old Eric Blair published his

first work in a local newspapera short patriotic poem. (ODoherty, J. 1974) In World War I the UK

fought with France, Russia and (after 1917) the US, against Germany and its allies. (Turner, J. 1988)

The UK had suffered 2.5 million casualties and finished the war with a huge national debt.

(Westwell, I. and Cove, D. (eds.) 2002, pp. 705) Nevertheless the British Empire reached its greatest

extent covering a fifth of the world's land surface and a quarter of its population. (Turner, J. 1988,

pp. 41) Women became more emancipated (allowed to vote since 1918) while Government tried to

boom economy. (Starkings, D. 1969)

In 1927, George Orwell returned from Burma and spent much of the winter this year getting to

know the poor and the exploited of Londons East End.(ODoherty, J. 1974, pp. 5) Probably this had

an influence on his work: Poverty was Orwells inspiration for his novel Down and Out in Paris and

London (1933) (Moreno, G. 2013, presentation slides)

The next years for were the to prove as controversial and eventful as any in British history

(Rubinstein, W. 2003, pp. 194), because Britain was at war, fighting alone against Nazi-Germany and

for its very existence as a nation. Britain was even faced being invaded while the so-called Battleof

Britain in 1940. This began with an attempt by the Luftwaffe (the German Air Force) to defeat the

Royal Air Force and neutralize the Royal Navy. London became the target for the German

bombardment. Finally Britain won over the invincible Nazis. (Rubinstein, W. 2003)


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British Propaganda during World War II

Propaganda was huge on both sides. From posters, leaflets,

books to cinema and radionearly every kind of media was used

for propaganda purposes.According to the Independent (2009)

Britains World War II films were more than just propaganda.

And also the BBC was threatened: The War proved to be a

tough test of the BBC's independence. At times the Government

and the military wanted to use the BBC to counter crude

propaganda from the Nazis, and there was talk in Westminster of

taking over the BBC, writes the BBC in its article The BBC at

WarCensorship and Propaganda.Reporters were frustrated,

because they were heavily censored.

British journalism and objectivityin the 20thCentury

Although Britain was the first country introducing officially the freedom of press by the Bill of Rights

(1689), there were not only various restrictions (see chapter above), but also an uncertainty what

objectivityis. According to Hampton, M 2008, pp. 477, objectivity was not even the aim of British

journalists: Although it [objectivity] has appeared in particular contexts, specifically as corporate

norms at Reuters and the BBC, throughout the 20th century it was never accepted as a generalized

ideal among British journalists. Particularly among print journalists, such ideals as independence, fair

play, and non-intervention by the state were far more compelling than objectivity. In comparison to

the United States for example journalistic ideals departed. (Hampton, M. 2008)

Considering those circumstances George Orwell can be described as a real British journalist (in the

sense of following British ideals): *+ Orwell was in fact trying to articulate a value system which he

believed to characterise the way of life a whole class, and which he had encountered in the North of

England before going to Spain. (Ingle, S. 1984, pp. 3)

But what kind of value system was Orwell following? The variety of opinions as to what he stood

for presents a paradox. Orwell is claimed for anarchism, Trotskyism, democratic socialism, English

patriotism, tory traditionalism, and even protestant individualism. (Ingle, S. 1984, pp. 1)

Therefore Orwells journalistic work cannot be described as objective. Not even he is doing that. In

his text Why I Write(1946) he is giving a concrete answer to his journalistic motivation: Every line

of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written directly or indirectly against

totalitarianism and for Democratic Socialism, as I understand it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/britains-world-war-ii-films-were-more-than-just-propaganda-1780730.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/britains-world-war-ii-films-were-more-than-just-propaganda-1780730.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/britains-world-war-ii-films-were-more-than-just-propaganda-1780730.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcatwar/censor_prop.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcatwar/censor_prop.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcatwar/censor_prop.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcatwar/censor_prop.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcatwar/censor_prop.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcatwar/censor_prop.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcatwar/censor_prop.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcatwar/censor_prop.shtmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/britains-world-war-ii-films-were-more-than-just-propaganda-1780730.html


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George Orwells contribution to advance the quality of journalism

George Orwell did not advance journalists objectiveness, but broaden journalisticor literature in

general- purposes. There is an old, curious theory among academic critics claiming that the roots of

literature are to be found in literature alone or also known as the doctrine Art for Arts Sake.

(Woodcoock, G. 1984)

Orwell can be seen as counterpart of this theory. Although he claims in Why I Write(1946) that in his

early writing I remained almost unaware of my political loyalties, he became more and more

political with his work later on.

In the same text Orwell is clearly stating that he uses his essays and books for political message and

is not following the literature-is-born-from-literature theory:

My starting point is always a

feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice.

When I sit down to write a book, I do not say

to myself, "I am going to produce a work of

art." I write it because there is some lie that I

want to expose, some fact to which I want to

draw attention, and my initial concern is to get

a hearing.

Once again, Orwell explains further, no book is genuinely free from political bias. Theopinion that

art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude. George Orwell did not only

spread his personal, political views, but he also invented this discipline of writing: What I have most

wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into an art (1946).

Of course Orwells writing was strongly connected to the political circumstances he lived in.

According to him, it is not possible to assess a writers motives without knowing something about his

development and age he lived in. This determines his subject matter, at least this is true in

tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own. (Orwell, G. 1946)

Orwell himself lived in a time, which he understood as moral vacuum in modern culture (Kubal,D.

1972, pp. 3). It was up to him to fill this vacuum; that was what most people feel on reading him

the impact of moral force. (Thomas, E. 1965). George Orwell lived under historically extreme times.

He did not only write for arts sake, but also because he felt having to: If I had not been angry about

that [injustice] I should never have written the book [Homage to Catalonia+(Orwell, G. 1946).

Orwells achievement for journalism is probably his counterpart to objectivity, which is hard or even

impossible to reach. George Orwell clearly stated in chaotic times for what he is standing for. By

doing that, he became a moral force. A student of him called Orwell a virtuous man, (Thomas, E.

1965, pp. 1), because he made political writing into an art. (1.533 words)


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Bibliography

Ferguson, N. (2004). Empire: The rise and demise of the British world order and the lessonsfor global power. New York: Basic Books

Hampton, M. (2008) The Objectivity Ideal and its Limitations in the 20thCentury BritishJournalism,Journalism Studies, 9:4, pp. 477-493

Ingle, S. (1984) Decency versus Ideology: The Politics of George Orwell, Hull Papers inPolitics, 36:6, pp. 1-23.

Kubal, D. (1972) Outside the Whale: George Orwells Art & Politics. London: University ofNotre Dame Press

ODoherty, J. (1974) Significant Dates in the Life of George Orwell in Martin, A. (ed.)Animal Farm. Dublin: Macmillan Publishers Group, pp. 5-6

Orwell, G. (1946) Why I Write. London: Gangrel Rubinstein, W. (2003) Twentieth-Century Britain A Political History. Hampshire: Palgrave

Macmillan

Starkings, D. (1969) British Democracy in the Twentieth Century. Glasgow: Faber Turner, J. (1988). Britain and the First World War. London: Unwin Hyman. pp. 2235 and 41 Westwell, I.; Cove, D. (eds) (2002). History of World War I, Volume 3. London: Marshall

Cavendish. pp. 705.

Williams, R. (1971) Orwell. London: Wm. Collins & Co Ltd Woodcock, G. (1984) Orwells Message: 1984 and the Present. Madeira Park: Harbour

Publishing Co. Ltd.

British Journalism In George Orwell's Times

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