Propaganda in World War I
was the first war in which mass media and propaganda played a significant role in keeping the people at home informed on what occurred on the battlefields. It was also the first war in which governments systematically produced propaganda as a way to target the public and alter their opinion.
According to Eberhard Demm and Christopher H. Sterling:
Propaganda by all sides presented a highly cleansed, partisan view of fighting. Censorship rules placed strict restrictions on frontline journalism and reportage, a process that continues to affect the historical record — for instance, possibly due to image concerns, there is no known visual evidence of American shotgun use during the war. Propagandists utilized a variety of motifs and ideological underpinnings, such as atrocity propaganda, propaganda dedicated to nationalism and patriotism, and propaganda focused on women.
Media and censorship
The media was expected to take sides, not to remain neutral, during World War I. When Wilhelm II declared a state of war in Germany on July 31, the commanders of the army corps took control of the administration, including implementing a policy of press censorship, which was carried out under Walter Nicolai.Censorship regulations were put in place in Berlin, with the War Press Office fully controlled by the Army High Command. Journalists were allowed to report from the front only if they were experienced officers who had "recognized patriotic views". Briefings to the press created a high degree of uniformity in wartime reporting. Contact between journalists and fighting troops was prohibited, and journalists spoke only to high-ranking officers and commanders.
File:Sargent, John Singer - Gassed - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|Gassed, painted by John Singer Sargent
Both sides initially prohibited any photography or filming. The primary visual representation relied on war painting, but the Germans used some heavily-censored filmed newsreels. The French preferred painting over photography, but some parties used photographs to document the aftermath of damage that had been inflicted on cities by artillery. However, photographs of battle scenes were re-enactments by necessity.
When World War I started, the United States had become a leader in the art of filmmaking and the new profession of commercial advertising. Such newly-discovered technologies played an instrumental role in the shaping of the American mind and the altering of public opinion into supporting the war. Every country used careful edited newsreels to combine straight news reports and propaganda.
By country
Germany
Official German propaganda had multiple themes: A) It proclaimed that German victory was a certainty. B) It explained that Germany was fighting a war of defence. C) Enemy atrocities were denounced, including its starvation plan for German civilians, use of dum dum bullets, and the use of black soldiers. D) The rhetoric exalted Germany's historic mission to promote high culture and true civilization, celebrating the slogan "work, order, duty" over the enemy's "liberty, equality, fraternity." E). It explained that German victory would benefit all of mankind, freeing the seas for all nations, and enabling the downtrodden colonies of the Allies to liberate themselves. F). Germany needed land to expand, as an outlet for its surplus population, talent, organizing ability, financial capital, and manufacturing output. G). The riches of the world, especially raw materials, controlled by the British and the French, must be disgorged by the enemy to the benefit of Germany.Different themes were employed in propaganda targeting various audiences. The Germans also funded revolutionary propaganda in support of the Bolsheviks in Russia.
Russia
Russian World War I propaganda posters generally showed the enemies as demonic, one example showing Kaiser Wilhelm as a devil figure. They would all depict the war as ‘patriotic’, with one poster saying that the war was Russia’s second ‘patriotic war’, the first being against Napoleon. Russian press operating in the Caucasus had been reporting on a "really intolerable situation" in Anatolia since before the formal commencement of hostilities with the Ottoman Empire.Armenia
Propaganda was one of the tools employed by the Armenians of the Caucasus to advance the Armenian revolutionary movement. The effort to recruit Ottoman Armenians to enlist in the Russian army was supported by Hampartsum Arakelyan, editor of Mshak, a leading Armenian language circular in the Caucasus region. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1878 that set the stage for World War I, Mshak was especially active in publishing pro-Russian propaganda. According to Tasnapetean the intervening years had left the Armenians unprepared to confront the violence of the Armenian Genocide that was unleashed on them in 1915:...it is evident that after the first few years of elation after the Ottoman Constitution, and despite the gradual deterioration of conditions after 1911, as well as the spread of Pan-Turanian thought and the efforts of the 'Turkji' movement, the Armenians of Turkey―including the executive bodies and ranks of the Dashnaktsutiun―were not psychologically or practically ready in 1915 to resort to general self-defense, let along a general uprising. They had, starting in 1912, elected to again appeal to international diplomacy instead of relying on their own armed struggle.
United Kingdom
The Order of the White Feather
In August 1914, British Admiral Charles Penrose Fitzgerald enlisted a group of women and assigned them to send letters with a white feather to men not in uniform. He hoped that the men would be embarrassed and volunteer for the army. The initiative was a great success and spread throughout the UK. Many of the men labeled cowards turn out to be civilians working in the military industry,soldiers on leave or wounded veterans. Industrial workers began wearing special badges, and in 1916 the British government began issuing silver badges for former servicemen so as not to become the subject of confusion.United States
The most influential man behind the propaganda in the United States was President Woodrow Wilson. In his famous January 1918 declaration, he outlined the "Fourteen Points," which he said that the United States would fight to defend. Aside from the restoration of freedom in Europe in countries that were suppressed by the power of Germany, Wilson's Fourteen Points called for transparency regarding discussion of diplomatic matters, the free navigation of the seas in peace and in war, and equal trade conditions among all nations. The Fourteen Points became very popular across Europe and motivated German socialists especially. It served as a blueprint for world peace to be used for peace negotiations after the war. Wilson's points inspired audiences around the world and greatly strengthened the belief that Britain, France, and America were fighting for noble goals.The 1915 film The German Side of the War was one of the only American films to show the German perspective of the war. At the theater, lines stretched around the block; the screenings were received with such enthusiasm that would-be moviegoers resorted to purchasing tickets from scalpers.
Propaganda made American entry into the war possible, but many propagandists later confessed to fabricating atrocity propaganda. By the 1930s, Americans had grown resistant to atrocity stories. A 1940 study of American public opinion determined that the collective memory of World War I was the primary reason for Allied propaganda during World War II serving only to intensify anti-war sentiment in the United States.
Committee on Public Information
In 1917 Wilson created the Committee on Public Information, which reported directly to him and was essentially a massive generator of propaganda. The Committee on Public Information was responsible for producing films; commissioning posters; publishing numerous books and pamphlets; purchasing advertisements in major newspapers; and recruiting businessmen, preachers, and professors to serve as public speakers in charge of altering public opinion at the communal level. The committee, headed by the former investigative journalist George Creel, emphasized the message that America's involvement in the war was entirely necessary for achieving the salvation of Europe from the German and enemy forces. In his book titled How we Advertised America, Creel states that the committee was called into existence to make World War I a fight that would be a "verdict for mankind." He called the committee a voice that was created to plead the justice of America's cause before the jury of public opinion. Creel also refers to the committee as a "vast enterprise in salesmanship" and "the world's greatest adventure in advertising." The committee's message resonated deep within every American community and served as an organization that was responsible for carrying the full message of American ideals to every corner of the civilized globe. Creel and his committee used every possible mode to get their message across, including printed word, the spoken word, the motion picture, the telegraph, the poster, and the signboard. All forms of communication were put to use to justify the causes that compelled America to take arms.Creel set out systematically to reach every person in the United States multiple times with patriotic information about how the individual could contribute to the war effort. The CPI also worked with the post office to censor seditious counter propaganda. Creel set up divisions in his new agency to produce and to distribute innumerable copies of pamphlets, newspaper releases, magazine advertisements, films, school campaigns, and the speeches of the Four Minute Men. The CPI created colourful posters that appeared in every store window to catch the attention of passers-by for a few seconds. Cinemas were widely attended, and the CPI trained thousands of volunteer speakers to make patriotic appeals during four-minute breaks, which were needed to change reels. They also spoke at churches, lodges, fraternal organizations, labour unions, and even logging camps. Creel boasted that in 18 months, his 75,000 volunteers had delivered over 7.5 million four-minute orations to over 300 million listeners in a nation of 103 million people. The speakers attended training sessions through local universities and were given pamphlets and speaking tips on a wide variety of topics, such as buying Liberty bonds, registering for the draft, rationing food, recruiting unskilled workers for munitions jobs, and supporting Red Cross programs.
Historians were assigned to write pamphlets and in-depth histories of the causes of the European war. After World War I started, both sides of the conflict used propaganda to shape international opinion. Thus, propaganda become a weapon to influence countries.