Propaganda had its up’s and down’s because at the start of the war Britain had thousands of volunteers for the army volunteering every day, this was because everyone thought that the war would be over by Christmas 1915. After Christmas no one volunteered because they didn’t know when the war was going to end. No volunteers/little was volunteering to fight. Now was a vital time for more soldiers. Conscription was introduced in Jan 1915, any single man between 18-41 had to fight. This was hated by the public but was needed to help the war effort. As the war continued propaganda had to be more forceful and demanded that men had to fight. As the war progressed, stories were made up of the Germans, describing that they were brutal. This encouraged everyone to help to defeat the enemy.
Over wartime, propaganda tried to develop, but because people were finding out more information, the stopped publishing propaganda. In the newspapers plenty of true stories were changed or censored by the government to keep morale high.
How Effective Were The Methods Of Propaganda Used In The First World War In Winning Support For The War Effort?
In the First World War propaganda was very effective because government used many higher-class citizens/wives/idols in posters to persuade either women to work or men to fight. From the posters sending men to war, recruitment was a great success and approx, 500,000 in the first month. To win even more support for the war effort, many people went to war because of the Pals Battalions. For women, posters that portrayed them as equal citizens encouraged them to prove that they were as skilled as men. This gave the women a chance to prove themselves that they were as valuable as men in the push to defeat Germany and her great army.
Many sorts of propaganda affected the war effort in many different ways. Posters telling men to go to war were designed to influence them, telling them that they helped, that they were Britain. War stories about German soldiers who killed Belgian babies and murdered Belgian nurses. This was hugely exaggerated to convince men to be apart of the war effort and to lower the German morale. This also made women help out. By 1917 40,000 applied for jobs and took care of most businesses and there was still prejudices against women working. They made posters saying, “to have all female factories”. Women were used in posters and played an important part in winning the support for the war because they had initially been portrayed in the wrong way. If they were seen as equal citizen they would have achieved not as much as they initially did. The boosted the British women’s morale because they thought that they were seen as equal citizens.
We can prove if propaganda was successful or not if we look at the times certain propaganda posters were published and see how many were recruited around that time. Propaganda was successful, when the most people supported the war because they felt they did ‘their bit’, even if their initial enthusiasm did turn to bitterness at lost loved ones. Although loved ones were lost everyday, everyone couldn’t blame everyone else, they felt that they should help, so that less people suffered. Many people objected to the war simply because they wanted peace. Altogether approximately 16,000 refused to fight; they were named conchies, which meant cowardice. Throughout Britain there were no organised anti-war groups and not many objectors overall.
Rationing was one type of propaganda that helped Britain win the war, because it was a fair way of sharing out the countries food over a long period of time. This was so successful because by the end of the war poorer people were healthier than before. Although rationing was a success in the beginning the government thought that people might spread rumors about the German U-Boat campaign, which was defeating Britain.
Women in the workforce were very successful in the way that they proposed men to go to war so that they could overtake their jobs all over the country. They were the backbone of Britain and played a very important role for the war effort. Originally women volunteered their services or were paid very little. Men knowing that women could do their jobs equally well boosted the war effort
Recruitment played an important part in the First World War, winning support for the war effort because of with all of the propaganda leaflets and posters; men took interest and began to volunteer. A poster of Lord Kitchener was published; he was a general and became Secretary Of state. This made people believe that they could be like him. Men believed that it was their duty to go and fight or just an adventure with their friends in the Pals Battalions act.
Consequently all of these propaganda proposals achieved their goals. However the recruitment campaign was the most successful because so many volunteered. The war for Britain was a success until Christmas 1915 because people thought that the war was going to be over by then. They didn’t know when it was going to end so there were no/little volunteers; this was why conscription was introduced.
Overall, propaganda was very effective over the wartime period. It convinced men to war, women to work and everyone to do their bit. However as the war progressed, propaganda was seen as a less efficient way of making people contribute. ‘ The Battle Of The Somme’, a film that was a great success, told about life at war. The film was so popular that 20million people watched it in the first 6 weeks. There was a controlled scene of two deaths, faked in a training trench This showed how tough war was. In the film it showed Britain as the stronger force, which was very effective because there was a mass audience.
Propaganda was a great success for Britain. As the war progressed people started to realise that defeat was likely for Britain. Knowing this they made even more of an effort to keep Britain alive. The government could only use propaganda at the beginning of the war because people were naive then. People were gaining more information from soldiers who were bringing home stories which were different from what they were being told/reading. Finally the one thing that the government couldn’t have predicted or controls were the British peoples emotions or the way that they felt, this was a huge draw back as well.
