This means war This means war This means war Lash your tongue of bane Carry me to nowhere Mental holocaust Battle never ends Lie! Mask the pain Of a child who's forsaken Lie! To myself Praise the new regime I left me long ago Reasons you'll never know No one to miss me when I'm gone With no more words to say No argument to stay. Another post I.
World War I saw mobilization of propaganda on an unprecedented scale, which continues to form an important part of warfare to this day. Click on the mini gallery to view some propaganda posters.The use of propaganda in wartime is not a modern invention. Societies have used and lived with propaganda from the earliest civilizations. In ancient Greece, Aristotle wrote about the importance of understanding what motivates audiences when preparing to speak in public. Xenophon is credited with recording the earliest use of misinformation in wartime in his accounts of the Greek wars with Persia around the beginning of the 4 th century BC. Roughly 2,500 years ago, the Chinese general Sun Tzu, writing in The Art of War, stated that, “to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” Total WarHowever, it is not until the early decades of the 20 th century that the use of in war became both as widespread and as significant as we see it today.
In, an exhibition held at the British Library in 2013, we argued that marked a turning point for state use of propaganda both in war and during peace. There are a number of reasons for this. World War I has been as the first “Total War,” a term that describes both the industrialization of warfare and the ability of new weapons to reach far beyond conventional battlefields.For the first time, entire populations – women and children included – would be required to maintain the rate of production needed for food, clothes, and munitions to keep armies fighting. For many countries, advances in political representation meant that a greater proportion of the population (although still almost exclusively men) now had an influence on the direction of state policy, and could remove governments perceived as not acting in their interests.The global nature of the war meant that the European powers needed to convince those around the world to support them. This included the subjects of colonies in, and the Caribbean, as well as neutral countries, to appeal for resources or financial support to continue the fight.
All these factors came together to convince leaders of states of the of propaganda, and of coordinating propaganda efforts.Material was produced in huge quantities. In Britain, it was estimated that 40 million items were manufactured for overseas use during 10 months in 1917 alone. Mass production and circulation of a variety of publications was one means of influencing opinion. When these were directed at enemy forces, or populations in occupied countries, new ways of circulating material was needed. The First World War saw the introduction of the use of airplanes to drop leaflets over enemy forces and civilian populations alike.The power of image was recognized as important not just in giving a sense of veracity to accounts, but also in the powerful emotional impact that images could convey.
This can be seen in recruitment and war-savings posters, and also in the many photographic news titles produced for circulation around the world. By the end of 1916, Britain’s War Pictorial had a circulation of 500,000 copies per issue, in four editions covering 11 languages. Propaganda was not limited to print alone, as countries set up film production and distribution units to carry their messages in the new medium. In Britain itself, as public opinion towards war diversified in the 1920s and 1930s, so its use of propaganda was seen as deceitful and morally damaging.Propagandists of the First World War recognized, however, that they could not rely on state-produced material alone to make their case.
Influence had to be applied on those that already held sway over public opinion, and chief amongst these were newspaper editors and owners. One of Britain’s first acts in entering the war was to cut the undersea telegraph cable that connected continental Europe to the United States. For the entire duration of the war, the fastest and cheapest way of getting news to the US was through Britain, and this gave Britain an unmatched advantage in influencing the reporting of foreign correspondents.
A British ApproachIn 1914, the British prime minister also set up a covert propaganda department, known as Wellington House, to direct the work of influencing opinion overseas. Wellington House recruited authors, artists, journalists and newspaper editors to produce and advise on propaganda. Efforts were directed at putting across the British case in the foreign press.
For the US in particular, there was also an attempt to target those seen as both sympathetic to Britain and influential in public debate on the war. The objective was to ensure that the British case was promoted in the US, but without the messages appearing to come from Britain.The British approach to propaganda, at least that directed to people outside Britain, can be characterized by the notes made by Lord Northcliffe. Northcliffe was the owner of The Times and Daily Express newspapers, and influential in British politics. In 1917, he was appointed as head of the Committee for Enemy Propaganda.