Big Brother, Orwell and other dystopian fiction.

pork99

As you're all probably aware the name "Big Brother" comes from Georges Orwell's novel "1984" and is a metaphor for the relentless survaillance and control of people's lives in a totalitarian socialist state. Another concept Orwell came up with was "prolefeed" which is perhaps closer to what the TV "Big Brother" is about;

prolefeed - Rubbishy "Entertainment" and spurious news which the Party handed out to the masses. This includes written literature, movies, porn, music, and other various propaganda created for the proles. (For a modern example of prolefeed, just turn on your television or radio. With the exception of some scientific programming, everything else is prolefeed.)

http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/

But perhaps a show called "Prolefeed" wouldn't go down so well

Another disturbing parallel is to Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", a dystopian vision of a post-literate society;

For ten years the protagonist, Guy Montag, works with grim pleasure as a fireman, seemingly committed to the concept that books have nothing to say. The stench of kerosene in his nostrils and the spark in his eyes do little, however, to mask the loneliness he feels coming home to his wife, Mildred, a woman who, at all times, seeks self-stimulation in various forms such as a miniature radio jammed in her ear at night*, or the three wall TVs** in the parlour, with their silly shows, lacking any sense or meaning***. With the spreading of TVs, newspapers disappeared and nobody wanted them back and nobody missed them because it was so easy: one did not have to think while sitting on front of the screen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451

*iPods/walkman

**Plasma screen tvs

***well do I need to spell it out?