Emotional Manipulation In 1984

In the novel 1984 Orwell creates an underlying theme of how the government is limiting the emotional range to just hate, we can see this happening in the world today through the rise in emotional manipulation through media. This is seen through the portrayal of violence in the media, especially tv. The constant news twenty-four-seven, most of which being biased and negative. As well as the constant divide media has made between people, shown in the book through the lack of love aloud. On page eight of 1984 we hear about how Winston visits the movies, one of the regular activities in the novel, and sees an upset prole mother over the fact that her child is seeing this violence. This was one of the biggest things to relate to the current media

This is the first generation where we have twenty-four-seven news making the news channels have to increase what they are showing and make it more eye-catching to attract viewers. In doing this they use one of the easiest to elicit emotions, anger, by doing this it affects how people express emotions. This is not the only thing the news has been seen to be doing. They also have a lot of bias in news channels, simply switching from CNN, to FOX, to BBC, you can see how they can change the same story to benefit the political party they support swaying watchers emotions and opinions. In the book Winston's talks about how annoying it is to never be able to turn off the telescreen which is constantly spewing government approved information that is constantly alerted to sway the citizens (Pg.

In 1984 one of the many illegal acts Winston does is loving Julia. When torturing Winston O'Brien's main focus is getting Winston to love Big Brother but when he finds out Winston is still in love with Julia he takes him to the worst of the worst torture rooms designed for each person (Pg. 286). Winston does end up betraying Julia, but it speaks to how O'Brien, a major worker in the government, is so focused on making Winston not feel any love to anyone besides the government. This is really relevant to the current media trends. America has become more divided than ever in the past couple of years, a lot of which being due to politics and misinformation circulation. Article Media manipulation and disinformation online (2017) states that “Fake news” is a contested term, but generally refers to a wide range of disinformation and misinformation circulating online and in the media. The term itself has quickly become contentious and politically-motivated.” A lot of this division is making peoples emotions towards others change very quickly especially when they have differing ideas, which is a direct correlation to the