How did modern propaganda emerge from the First World War?
The first world war shaped the world permanently, it highlighted the importance of both the soldier and the citizen. Of its many legacies, propaganda is one of the most debated but also the most important as it continues to shape our lives today. War Propaganda is ‘as old as history’ but propaganda as we know it today has its origins from the first world war. The birth of state lead and media driven propaganda that would evolve into the concept as we understand it today, it was during the war that states for the first time deliberately created organisations to ‘generate and direct’ propaganda (Badsey, 2014). Today it is a tool that can be used by almost any entity, from terrorism cells to individuals.
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To succinctly define propaganda for what it is, both during the war but also to date. I refer to the definition found within the Cambridge dictionary, it is the ‘information, ideas, opinions or images that are broadcast, published or spread with the intention of influencing opinion’. This definition encapsulates the core purpose of propaganda and war propaganda to this day.
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To begin to understand propaganda as we understand it today, it has to be made clear the circumstances under which it was created during to begin with. Modern propaganda in all its forms and facets is an evolution of war propaganda, a creation born from a time of global conflict that was unlike anything previously experienced by any existing state. Not only were armies at war but entire nations were, as a tool of the world war it was deployed on a global scale and paved the way for what we experience today (Badsey, 2014) (Welch, 2014)
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As previously mentioned, the scale of the first world war was nothing before experienced and it resulted in drastic changes to warfare and would shape the world up until this day. Propaganda was for the first time linked with media and actively put to use by heads of state to target allies, enemies, neutrals and their domestic populations. This was born from a necessity, to win the war an entire nation had to play their part and unlike previous centuries where battles were fought solely by armies the domestic population of every belligerent nation had an equally important role fuelling the war machine.
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The success of propaganda comes down to timing, the first world war occurred at a time when a variety of interacting political, social, commercial, military and technological came together to produce a wide variety of media perfect for the dissemination of propaganda factors (Fox & Welch, 2012) (Badsey, 2014). This had two facets, the first being the number of outlets for information: newspapers, films, speeches, photography, posters, books, pamphlets, periodicals and cartoons. These technological advancements that lead to the emergence of such a wide range of media assets paved the way, if not propelled forward, the state propaganda machine. Far larger audiences could be reached both domestically and internationally, making media the beating heart of propaganda during the war (Fox, 2014) (Millman, 2000).
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The second was an opportunity provided by the war itself, control of these media outlets and censorship in a manner that was not viewed as undemocratic (Fussel, 2013). The state was the trusted source of information and in a less connected, less globalised, world there was no other source that could be relied upon. While the intended message came from the government, a large portion of the propaganda produced was done so via non-government initiatives or through government co-operation alongside private institutions, as time passed government entities were created and some operate to this day. (Bernays, 1928)