Propaganda and censorship Flashcards
What is the main way that news was censored?
British people were only told of the British victories e.g. when British battleship HMS Audacious was sunk in October 1914, it was not reported
What weren’t journalists allowed to do until November 1916?
Be on the front
Who was Lord Beaverbrook?
Owner of The Daily Express, as well as being a cabinet minister in 1916 and Minister for Information in 1918
How did the government deal with newspapers that didn’t censor their articles?
Some independent newspapers published more balanced articles, which were tolerated at first, but as the war dragged on, pacifist newspapers like the Tribunal were closed down, and Socialist newspapers like the Daily Herald were monitored carefully
How many items did the Government Press Bureau and Intelligence Services examine in 1916?
38,000 articles, 25,000 photos and 300,000 private telegrams
What did leading authors do in terms of propaganda?
Leading authors (e.g. HG Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle) signed a Declaration by Authors in Support of the War, and most of them produced patriotic publication for no fee
What did the department of history at Oxford do in terms of propaganda?
Produced a 5-volume explanation as to why Britain was justified in going to war, which sold 50,000 copies
What did toy and children’s books companies do in terms of propaganda?
Many toys and children’s books were published portraying Germans as cowardly and treacherous and the Brits as modest and brave- we know they sold well because they were still being reprinted in the 1920s and 1930s
What did British film makers do in terms of propaganda?
Produced 240 war films between 1915 and 1918, very few of which were actually commissioned by the War Department
How many people saw the patriotic film ‘For the Empire’, and who produced it?
It reached an estimated audience of 9 million by the end of 1916, and the British Topical Committee for War Films
How many cinemas was the film ‘The Battle of the Somme’ shown in during its first three months?
2,000 out of the 4,500 in the country
What was set up in 1917 to try and keep up support for the war and stop revolutions?
The National War Aims Committee was set up to work with Union leaders, church groups and others by Lloyd George, and was semi-official (so politicians could deny any involvement). Its budget was £240,000 (over £10 million today) - there were no revolutions and support was maintained, so this worked
How many copies did George Bernard Shaw’s anti-war pamphlet ‘Common Sense About the War’ (1914) sell?
25,000, but he became the target of much criticism
How many workers went on strike in 1916?
235,000 workers went on strike at various times and 2.5 million working days were lost in criticism of the war
How many workers went on strike in 1918?
Over 900,000 workers went on strike at some stage, and over 6 million working days were lost
