World War I Communications Legacies
First government use of ‘modern’ mass
media to promote war effort
Pre-1917 public opinion
Limited support for
Significant opposition: German- Americans,
Irish-Americans, Socialists, isolationists
Propaganda campaigns from
Submarine warfare/Zimmerman telegram
New ‘mass’ media in 1917
Large urban daily newspapers
national consumer magazines
Film (black and white, silent)
Radio experiments
Also: telegraph, oratory (
New relationship: Government and the Press
First agency “press bureau” (1905)
Hiring of “publicity experts” (1912)
First “press conferences”(1913)
Theodore Roosevelt,
White House Correspondents (1913)
War Powers Sought by
Committee on Public Information
George Creel
Herbert
Espionage Act (
Censorship of newspapers (denied)
Loss of postal privileges: The Masses
Certification of correspondents
Government campaigns: Promote war effort, bond sales,
attack ‘enemy’
Run by volunteers from publicity, advertising,
newspapers, magazines.
Food: Food Will
Win the War, ‘Hooverizing’
After WWI: Communications legacies
Ferment, debate in 1920s-1930s over:
Media “effects” on individuals
Role of propaganda/engineering of consent
Reaction against censorship
First Amendment law changes
Reconsideration of journalistic goals
Facts/Objectivity (Lippmann)
Search for ethics codes:
Newspaper
editors (ASNE)
Public
relations (Bernays/Fleischman)
Advertising
trade groups
Beginnings of communications studies
Walter Lippman, Public
Opinion (1922)
Harold Lasswell, Propaganda
Techniques in the World War (1927)
James R. Mock, Words
that Won the War (1939)
Critical, but also became template for World War II
Bullet theory/media ‘effects’
Radio: Hope, Fear,
and Public Opinion
‘War of the Worlds’
Theories of Media Effects
Bullet Theory
‘Minimal’ Effects
1940 Election
Web of Influence
Individual Response
Selective Perception
Reinforcement, Not
Conversion
World War II Propaganda
‘Why We Fight’ Series
(Frank Capra)