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The Use of Propaganda to Mobilise the Minds of the Nation Toward War

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The Use of Propaganda to Mobilise the Minds of the Nation Toward War

Propaganda is defined as a specific type of message presentation aimed at serving an agenda. At its root, the denotation of propaganda is 'to propagate (actively spread) a philosophy or point of view'. The most common use of the term historically is in political contexts; in particular to refer to certain efforts sponsored by governments or political groups. Advertising, religious preaching, etc. are also propaganda, as well as, in today’s world, TV talk shows.

During World War 1 all types as propaganda was used to mobilise the minds of the nation towards war. They can be split into two groups: the state’s propaganda …show more content…

An example of this is Lord Beaverbrook the Daily Express owner, was a cabinet minister from 1916 and became Minister for Information in 1918. He and other newspaper barons were important in Britain’s war effort, which was shown when twelve leading newspaper industry members were knighted in recognition of their wartime services.

Letters and postcards sent to and from soldiers in the front were heavily censored. The government did not want morale to drop on the front line or back at home. Moreover, there is much evidence to show that soldier’s censored their own messages to their family and friends, by not revealing the truth about life in the trenches or their own distressing feelings about fighting the war and being stuck out in the war. Pictures of dead soldiers were not allowed, casualty figures were not released and often parliament was not told how the war was really going.

There were some independent papers that produced less biased news, sometimes even anti-war articles. Pacifist papers like Tribunal were put up with at first, but when war weariness set in the government was quick to close them. Socialist papers, like The Herald, were closely monitored It was mot just the people in Britain who were only allowed censored materials. The government was also concerned with sensitive information leaking out to the enemy. Even magazines for

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