In the second panel discussion, “Deceiving Images: The Science of Manipulation,” Frank Luntz and others talked about how political candidates use language. 

“There You Go Again: Orwell Comes to America” invited historians, linguists, cognitive experts, journalists, government officials, and political consultants to assess the current state of public discourse, and journalism’s response to it, one year before a hotly contested presidential election. The panels explored 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.

Andras Szanto is the editor of What Orwell Didn’t Know.

The forums were also sponsored by the graduate schools of journalism at Columbia University, University of California at Berkeley, and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, with support from the Open Society Institute.