MODERATOR: Nicholas Lemann, dean and Henry R. Luce Professor, The Journalism School, Columbia University.
PANELISTS: George Lakoff, Co-Founder and Senior Fellow, Rockridge Institute and the Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics, UC Berkeley · Frank Luntz, political pollster and consultant; author of Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear · Drew Westen, professor of psychology/psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Emory University; author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.
There You Go Again: Orwell Comes to America (http://www.nypl.org/live/multimedia/orwell)
On the 60th anniversary of Orwell's Politics and the English Language, George Orwell described political speech as consisting largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness. Some six decades later, many symptoms of manipulation and propaganda diagnosed by Orwell persist on the American political landscape, along with new disinformation techniques enabled by modern technology.
Historians, scientists, philosophers, linguists, cognitive experts, journalists, image-makers, and public figures will debate in three separate sessions the current state of political discourse and journalism's response to it on the dawn of a bitterly contested presidential campaign.
Part I - Propaganda Then and Now: What Orwell Did and Didn't Know
Part II - Deceiving Images: The Science of Manipulation
Part III - Solutions: The Future Political Landscape
Each session will explore the past, present, and future of deceptive political speech, and assess what can be done to bring more realism and honesty into the conduct of America's public affairs.
This event is co-sponsored by the Open Society Institute.
