Factors Influencing Change The Media and Entertainment

The media and entertainment played an important role in influencing and even changing attitudes during both wars. Moreover new forms of the media, most especially film and the radio, were used as methods of propaganda and entertainment.

Censorship How and why would the Government control the news during the wars?

Source A: The Prime Minister, Lloyd George, in a private conversation with the editor of the Manchester Guardian, December 1917 If the people really knew the truth about the war, the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they don’t-and cant-know. The correspondents don’t write, and the censors would not pass the truth. Lesson 16

Source B: An article from The Nation, May This journal was later banned It is a domestic tragedy of the war that the country which went out to defend liberty is losing its own liberties on by one, and that the government which began by relying on public opinion as a great help has now come to fear and curtail it. Lesson 16

Source CSource D Lesson 16

The government was also concerned with stopping sensitive information from leaking out to the enemy. In 1916, the government press bureau and the intelligence services examined 38,000 articles, 25,000 photographs and 3000,000 private telegrams. This continued during the Second World War, when the government also used posters to discourage people inadvertently giving information to potential spies. ‘Careless talk costs lives’ became their motto. Letters from soldiers at the front to loved ones in Britain were carefully censored. Service men and women began to use coded messages to avoid censorship. For instance, the mention of ‘yellow’ meant North Africa and ‘grey’ meant Iceland. A letter to a girlfriend suggesting that she painted the ceiling meant that her boyfriend was coming home!

Task What can you learn from Sources A and B about censorship during the First World War? Write a brief article from the government replying to Source B. How does the cartoonist get across his message in Sources C and D ?

What would you call this Medium of communication? What techniques is the government Using in this poster ? Give two reasons why The Government used This technique in war Time.

Film In 1914 the newest means of informing and influencing the masses was cinema. By 1917 there were 4,500 cinemas in Britain. The British Topical Committee for War Films was a group of film companies who got together to make and sell films for the War Department. Their patriotic film For the Empire had reaches an audience of 9 million by the end of YouTube - For the Empire, Part I (1916)

The committee also made the most famous film of the First World War, The Battle of the Somme. It was a genuine propaganda triumph, showing both real and fake scenes. It was released in August 1916 and was a huge success. YouTube - The Battle Of The Somme 1916 Digitally Restored DVD Clip

Source E – Three scenes from The Battle of the Somme What was the purpose of the Film maker in showing these Scenes? One scene is fake, which one? Why? Lesson 16

Source F: Extract from How I filmed the War by Geoffrey Malins, 1920 The Somme film has caused a great sensation. I really thought that some of the dead scenes would offend the British public. And yet, why should they? They realised that it was their duty to see for themselves. They had been told by the press and Parliament what was happening, but no effect. They must be shown. They must see with their own eyes. Yes, the truth has at last dawned on the British public. Lesson 16

Source G: from the diary of Henry Rider Haggard, 27 September 1916 Today I went to see the Somme War Film. It is not a cheerful sight, but it does give a wonderful idea about the fighting on the front, especially of shelling and its effects. Also, it shows the marvellous courage and cheerfulness of our soldiers in every emergency. As usual, all the pictures move too fast, even wounded seem to fly along. The most impressive of them to my mind is that of a regiment scrambling out of a trench to charge and one man who slides back shot dead. Lesson 16

Task Do you think you can rely on Mallins’ account in Source F? Explain you answer using Sources F and G

Radio The BBC radio was a key method of propaganda during the Second World War. At first only the Home Service was broadcast, but in February 1940, a second channel, the forces programme, was introduced. News bulletins had massive audiences and a reputation for truth. The were talk about losses and victories nut were still subject to censorship, they were not allowed to report in weather conditions or the movements of Winston Churchill.

Source H: From S. Womack, The Home Front during World War 11, 1985 News presenters were required to read the news without showing any emotion. As a result the news readers became amongst the best known men in the country and the voices of Alvar Lidell, Bruse Belfrage and Frank Phillips will forever conjure up vivid memories of those who lived through the war. Lesson 16