Language & Politics, Political Philosophy, General & Miscellaneous - Politics & Government
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Synopsis
At a time when communication -via the media- is more pervasive and more persuasive than ever before, "Orwellian Language and the Media" reconsiders George Orwell's ideas on language in Nineteen Eighty-Four and discusses the extent to which language has been corrupted and distorted in the interests of those in power in today's Britain.Did Orwell succeed in producing a critical theory of language? Was Orwell's Newspeak a forebear of today's 'economy of truth'? And just how free is our so-called democratic society in which ideas and facts are supposed to be freely communicated?
"Orwellian Language and the Media" is an essential guide to understanding the role of language in the moulding of public opinion. It has been written for those who want to know, for example, how the British electorate came to vote in a hard-right Conservative government in 1983, and how it came to be persuaded to accept the build-up of nuclear weapons.
In this often darkly humorous yet stimulating collection of essays, Paul Chilton explains and analyses the ideas of Orwell, Habermas, Chomsky and others, taking a long view of the way verbal messages transmitted by the media during and after the Falklands War, and the recent trend towards militarising the language of industry and education, exposing the use of language as a political tool through which the public is manipulated and brainwashed into unquestioning acceptance.
Book Details
Published
January 28, 1989
Publisher
Pluto Press
Pages
127
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780745301730