World War I was the first war in which mass media and propaganda played a significant role in keeping the people at home informed on what occurred at the battlefields.[1][page needed] It was also the first war in which governments systematically produced propaganda as a way to target the public and alter their opinion.
According to Eberhard Demm and Christopher H. Sterling:
Propaganda could be used to arouse hatred of the foe, warn of the consequences of defeat, and idealize one's own war aims in order to mobilize a nation, maintain its morale, and make it fight to the end. It could explain setbacks by blaming scapegoats such as war profiteers, hoarders, defeatists, dissenters, pacifists, left-wing socialists, spies, shirkers, strikers, and sometimes enemy aliens so that the public would not question the war itself or the existing social and political system.[2]
Propaganda by all sides presented a highly cleansed, partisan view of fighting. Censorship rules placed strict restrictions on frontline journalism and reportage, a process that continues to affect the historical record — for instance, possibly due to image concerns, there is no known visual evidence of American shotgun use during the war.[3] Propagandists utilized a variety of motifs and ideological underpinnings, such as atrocity propaganda, propaganda dedicated to nationalism and patriotism, and propaganda focused on women.[1][4][5]
- ^ a b Welch, David. "Propaganda for patriotism and nationalism". British Library. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
- ^ Eberhard Demm and Christopher H. Sterling, "Propaganda" in Spencer C. Tucker and Priscilla Roberts, eds. The Encyclopedia of World War I : A Political, Social, and Military History (ABC-CLIO 2005) 3:941.
- ^ Tom Laemlein (January 23, 2018). "The Trouble with Trench Guns". American Rifleman. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
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