Manipulation In 1984

George Orwell is a widely recognized novelist best known for the social commentary used in his writing. In Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, he alludes to the idea that the public is fated for corruption in a society with manipulation at its center. The social structure of the world is a complex framework yet, it is easily tainted with corrupt power. Unjust power is often overlooked when it is taking over everyday freedoms like media consumption. What one reads and consumes in their daily life is so essential to individual perception. If the constant stream of what is consumed is manipulated, it inevitably leads to the downfall of a prospering society. It causes one to question morality, be misguided by false or inflated truths, and possess an

Its primary role in the society is propaganda. The Party uses the slogan “War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength” (Orwell 21) to promote the paradoxical strategies of their agenda. The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, works in the Ministry of Truth where he rewrites historical text to fit the political agenda of the Ingsoc Party and what they perceive as “truth”. The Party, along with its totalitarian ruler Big Brother, uses its power to deceive the public. It is used as an outlet for brainwashing public perception and Orwell elaborates that in the society, “All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place” (Orwell 36). It is reiterated that the Party would go to any extent to curate information that was suitable to their demand. They possessed no concern for the truth and rather, made it their goal to erase

This is a principle that sets a standard for ruling out text that lacks integrity. Unethical journalism can be used as a foundation for determining comprising principles of ethics that should be utilized in publications. Integrity is necessary when it comes to journalism because it preserves the right to consume information that is both reliable and accurate. Unethical journalism was practiced in Oceania by the Party because they violated that integrity. The concept of true and false does not exist in the society because everything written under the Party’s publication was deemed true. They were in a position to make their own truth and rule out anything objective so that no idea coincided outside of their own. This, of course, is unethical journalism because facts should be separated from bias. It is explained in the novel that “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right” (Orwell 155). At this point, Winston reflects on the idea that he lives in a world where there can only be one single truth. This idea plays into unethical journalism because of its promotion of