Mª ISABEL GEJO

 Propaganda and World War I

Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation aimed at serving an agenda. Historically, the most common use of the term is in political contexts, such as war, treaty, truce, etc.; in particular to refer to certain efforts sponsored by governments or specific political groups to actively engage a civilian population in a specific type of conduct (e.g. hating an enemy nation, enlisting in the armed forces, buying war bonds, saving resources, etc.).

With only a small army and no policy of conscription upon entering WWI (1914), Britain responded to the urgent need for more men by quickly releasing a steady flow of recruitment posters. There are many posters made in 1914 to appeal British citizens to join the war.

We can see through the Imperial War Museum Collection the range of emotional, practical, and patriotic ways men were called to arms. The collection also includes posters aimed at people not eligible for recruitment, asking: “If you cannot join the army - try & get a recruit”, “To the women of Britain ... won't you help and send a man to join the army to-day.” Whether it was for political reasons, a sense of adventure, a sense of duty or purely for financial reasons, thousands of men did enlist, and thousands were killed or wounded on the European battlefields of the Great War.

Students must examine these examples of World War I propaganda (=POSTERS as primary historical source): -Britons. Join Your Country's Army! -Remember Belgium. Enlist To-day -Women of Britain say 'Go!' -Remember Scarborough -FORWARD! For weaker students: -Pre-teach difficult vocabulary (Great War, conscription, Treaty of London (1839), military strategy, propaganda, air raid, aid effort, the Allies, Triple Alliance, zeppelins, U-boat, etc.) -Write and explain the formal part of a poster: a message and audience in mind, design (title, graphic, text). Then, students must identify these parts in the posters . -To finish, students must rewrite the title or the message of the posters and modify their formal parts partially. For stronger students: -Students must consider the following questions to analyse the posters: 1. What is the perspective of the artist? How is this evident in the painting's details? 2. What is the country of origin of the poster? How do you know? 3. To what extent are details exaggerated? 4. To what extent do the scenes depicted inspire the viewers and unite them behind a common goal? 5. What ideas are present and how are they promoted (both visually and in captions)? 6. You may also want to consider observations about the human subjects themselves, gender, ethnicity, age, style of dress, etc.

-Finally, students must design their own war poster (from WWI) using the elements discussed in class after the analysis.