Tuesday, November 27, 2018
A Response to Propaganda in Britain
Just recently in my history
class, we were talking about propaganda in the second world war in Germany and
we compared in to propaganda of the ally forces. We also talked about Great Britain´s
propaganda in the first and second World War. I also read the blog of one of
the students in my blog group who also wrote about the propaganda in Britain. In
her last part of her blog she talks about futuristic propaganda in Britain and
this is the point where I actually got really interested in that propaganda
topic. I started to ask myself how propaganda in Britain looks like in the
future or even in the present. Because the only real propaganda we know is
always from the first and second World War and mainly addresses the same topic
over and over again. So for me propaganda is always something that is in the
past and not really present in our world anymore.
Let me start of by talking
about propaganda in the first and second World War and how it looked like at
that time.
In the first World War from
1914 to 1918 the first domestic propaganda had the purpose of military recruitment.
It was called PRC (Parliamentary Recruiting Committee). It was brought to live at
the end of August 1914. I was basically led by the biggest and most influential
british parties, except of the Irish Nationalists party. The recruited Volunteers
for the war against Germany. In September 1915 the RPC issued over 20 million
publications, which included over 8.5 million leaflets, over 5.6 million
posters and around 5.4 million pamphlets. By September 1915 over 2 million british
men had enlisted themselves as volunteers for the first World War. But also the
Irish contributed men to the first World War. The name of the recruiting
organization in Ireland was DRI (Department of Recruiting in Ireland). Over
200,000 Irishmen enlisted themselves, voluntarily, to help Britain fight in the
first World War. This was seen impressive, because of the complex and difficult
situation at that time in Ireland. But both of these propaganda organizations
were made solely for the purpose of war and recruitment propaganda. But the British
government also created a propaganda Bureau, the so called War Propaganda
Bureau or also known as the Wellington House, which was in charge of neutrals
and dominions. This Bureau was led by Charles Masterman. His determination was
to conduct propaganda on accurate information and measured argument.
In the second World War there
was not really a big change in the propaganda system in Britain. There were
still the propaganda organizations which had the job to recruit soldiers and
there was still the domestic propaganda organization. But in the second World War
the domestic one changed to MOI (Ministry of Information´s). It had the
responsibility for national propaganda, so in other words to maintain the moral
of the people at home and to influence the opinion about Britain abroad, in a
positive way. The MOI also had a new job in the second World War. It became major
publisher of magazines, books, postcards, leafslets, etc, which played a major role
in the dissemination of propaganda to the British people.
But there is also propaganda
in the present Britain. Propaganda about a big decision the UK made not that
long ago. It was the decision for the Brexit, which stands for Britain leaving
the European Union. In this case the british government released a lot of
propaganda pro Brexit. For instance the Office for National Statistics released
over a period of time several statistics about the migration into the UK. And
showed that the migration rate was the second highest. They also listed the
costs caused by the migration but also the immigration to Britain caused by EU laws.
But also independent magazines like “The Daily Mail” or “The Sun” spent several
millions for pro or contra propaganda concerning the Brexit topic. Not to forget
about hundreds of TV shows, which also costed millions.
https://www.google.com/search?q=propaganda+in+britain+for+brexit&rlz=1C1CHBD_deUS761US761&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjf58jr4vXeAhUGbq0KHV5ZAZoQ_AUIDygC&biw=1584&bih=772#imgrc=hGdvE7KmRskeGM:
My last point is about future
propaganda. I think Sarah Johnson made a good point in her blog. I agree with
her opinion that there won´t be a great fight or world war again. At least not
in the format we already know it. Problems in our world shifted to other, newer
and more undiscovered topics like technology. I also think that a potential war
between humanity and technology could be our next big conflict in which
propaganda will also play a huge role.
Dominik König
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