PROPAGANDA ON THE HOME FRONT DURING WWI
Propaganda is using limited or biased information for a specific purpose. The Government used this during world war one to great effect in many areas – to keep up morale, encourage support for the war effort, recruit soldiers and to create hatred and suspicion of the enemy.
Newspapers
Newspapers were the main source of information to the public, and so were crucial in the war effort. If the newspapers didn’t print the truth, however, people could not accurately tell what was going on in the war. Unfortunately, printing what was really going on would lower morale at home, discourage men from joining up and possibly incite mutiny and rebellion both at home and in the armed forces. At the start of the war, the papers were not allowed on the front line so they could not report on the terrible conditions the soldiers had to live and fight in. All that the public saw was a government summary, even without casualty lists until 1915. The reports used language that covered up the real severity of the war. A ‘baptism of fire’ meant heavy casualties, ‘rectification of the line’ was a retreat and ‘broken heroes’ were actually shell-shocked soldiers. Death was simply called wastage. Soldiers ‘fell in battle’ or were ‘slaughtered by the Hun’. The soldiers new these reports were misleading, even though they helped to keep morale high at home. A gulf began to develop between what was really happening and what the public were told. This made soldiers feel very isolated and betrayed. When they came home they could never really talk to their friends about what they had been through.
