Propaganda in 1984
What is propaganda? Propaganda is when someone, or something is using different strategies to try and get you to believe, or do something. One may think of propaganda as something the one would use to “plant a seed in an individuals mind”. Throughout the novel 1984, we can already tell that in the the first few pages of the book this dystopia that our protagonist Winston lives in, is very controlled and under surveillance, as we are introduced to one of the largest forms of propaganda in the novel, big brother. Big Brother is seen throughout the novel as a authorative figure, and he is in the highest power of the ingsoc society. Big brother’s face is put on posters throughout all of Oceania, reading “Big Brother is watching you” to remind everyone that they are under surveillance, and if someone is always watching you, it is a seed being planted in your mind as well, that most people have gotten used to in this society. Other examples include the 2 minutes hate, where the working class of proles are put in front of a telescreen, and they are shown propaganda and proceed to get infuriated towards what is being presented to them. To get these propaganda strategies out to the public, the ingsoc uses sneaky techniques of propaganda to reach the wanted audience. The techniques include Deification, where it is made that something is seen as holy, or above all, Fear which is used especially when everywhere is a reminder that a man is watching you, and Misuse of statistics, which the government bends to their will as we can see many times during the story.
