Toys and games were an effective use of propaganda. In wartime, the majority of toys produced were related to the armed forces. Children were able to buy toy soldiers and cannons. This was the use of propaganda to put pressure on parents. Children may put pressure on their parents to join the war effort; this was a surprisingly effective way of using propaganda. Games produced while the war was being fought focused on patriotic views. “Obliterating Germany” and “The Dreadnought Shooting Game” were two that were popular during the war. It was a chance for children and people exempt from conscription to feel as if they were helping. It may also encourage more people to join the army if they see that the war is just like a game, especially if the game is easy to win.
Books and other publications were also another type of propaganda. The University of Oxford produced a five-volume account of why Britain was justified in going to war. This book sold 50,000 copies. This was another effective means of propaganda. The public believed what was written in the book, and persuaded many people to support the war.
Women, making young men that had not volunteered to look like cowards, enforced another form of propaganda. They approached the men that were able to volunteer in very public places and handed them white feathers. Many of these men were abused in the streets through violence. To avoid being known as a coward and to be free from the abuse lots of them volunteered.
Many Posters like this one show working-class citizens undertaking their part in the effort to boost the army, not fighting, but helping at home.
Deterring the enemy off the war was a focal point of lowering the morale of the German public. With the German civilians being fed false statements about what was happening on the front, less and less soldiers wanted to enlist (
Britain did not want any more enemies, staying friendly with the neutral countries during the war meant that they certainly wouldn’t be creating them. Propaganda was also used to keep peace and influence the neutral countries (United Sates of America) to join the war, and defeat Germany. The most dramatic and exaggerated attempt from the British Government to persuade the U.S. to join the war came after the sinking of the Lusitania an American cargo ship. The British editors, media and the Government seized upon this opportunity like a bunch of starving dogs to meat, gnawing away at the U.S. and making a calamity out of the death of ‘many’ Americans. British editors sent false or fictitious statements to editors over seas in America. They exaggerated death figures, and pulled on the guilt strings again. The major thought for the American’s was that after the Germans had killed their fell country men and women, it is only right to take action against such atrocities. The main factor that the Government elaborated on was that those murdered were civilians!! The media made the sinking of the ship to be like a cold-hearted murder, which in a sense it was!
Films and cartoons were a main way of making propaganda work. However it was not only the government that produced propaganda, between 1915 and 1918 British filmmakers produced 240 war films, very few of which were commissioned by the War Department. Patriotic films such as ‘For The Empire’ were used to boost morale and support the for war effort. However, films were also used to generate hatred for the enemy. ‘The Battle of the Somme’ included real footage from the battle itself. Many wounded or dead soldiers were shown. This was not an attempt to show how bad war was, but to build up anger towards the enemy. The cinemas were not only used to screen films, they were also used to show short length cartoons such as the ‘Bully Boy’ series, to mock the Kaiser. The Cinema Division of the Department of Information carried this out. It was an effort to keep up the morale of the country through comedy. It was also to reassure the public that the war would be over shortly because the German Kaiser was stupid.
Newspaper articles were another way of using propaganda. Editors of the newspapers included articles about the triumphant victories that our army and navy had prevailed in. Some of these stories were false, though many were just exaggerated successes. The Defence of The Realm Act (DORA) was introduced to allow the government to censor the articles written by the reporters, any reports that could be damaging to the war effort were concealed. Up until 1916, no reporters were allowed onto the front line, and even after 1916, only 6 reporters were sanctioned to witness the Great War. Before the Battle of the Somme took place reporters were supposedly being taken to a vantage point to observe the battle. But instead they were taken to a set scene were they were fed information on how the battle was progressing, and of course this was all a lie, the government told the reporters that the British Army were slaughtering the German’s. The only reports from the front line that were printed were the ones that focused on good news, this was the governments attempt to suppress any information that may damage morale or support for the war. Photographs were limited to show the boys on the front cheering, smoking, and laughing; the idea was to act as if the war was a laid back, exciting affair. Articles also told of terrible atrocities committed by the Germans. One article (a complete lie) said that the Germans had sent the corpses of British soldiers to a factory, where they then melted their fat and made it into bars of soap. There were numerous other accounts of atrocities committed by the enemy. These stories were included in newspapers to create a profound hatred towards the enemy. Magazines were also used, such as ‘Boys Own’. This was a patriotic magazine for teenagers; it told stories of how underage teenagers managed to join the armed forces. This form of propaganda was designed to create potential recruits and encourage the underage teenagers to try and join the army. Not only did they lie about atrocities supposedly happening in England, they lied about the number of deaths on the front, they censored many of the number of deaths occurring on the front, and the public new none the wiser.
Overall propaganda was quite effective. Showing films lifted morale, support for the war grew steadily whilst it was being fought, and the enemy became immensely hated. The public were successfully kept unaware of the true horrors at the front line. The statistics also prove that the propaganda was mainly effective. In terms of recruitment, the propaganda was useful in the recruitment of 1.35 million men in the space of two months. However the number of recruits fell steadily as the impact of propaganda wore off. Propaganda also could not stop the public from finding out about the true horrors of the war and so morale did drop slightly as the war dragged on. The propaganda also failed to convince groups of people who still did not support the war. The propaganda through the help of the Defence of the Realm Act allowed the government to control every aspect of people’s lives. The film For The Empire was seen by 9 million people and over half the population read a daily newspaper. Also the patriotic weekly magazine John Bull was selling 2 million copies in 1918. This shows that the British public were surrounded by what the government wanted them to hear and see. Although propaganda was relatively effective, it is almost impossible to calculate how much the propaganda was responsible for the mobilising of the minds of the nation towards war.
