Once called the Great War, World War I differed from previous national and regional skirmishes in many respects. Not only was it a "practice run for racial cleansing", i.e. the uniquely characteristic genocidal practices of World War II, but World War I was the first international conflict that used propaganda on a massive scale. For the first time in history, the mass media appropriated both the resources and power to manipulate the minds of opposing nationalities -- and the civilians of World War I were its primary casualty.
During World War I, propaganda consisted of either outright lies, or half-truths (Becker 276). After all, it did not serve the military effort of any nation to reveal its strategy and tactics -- as well as the success of its operations on the fronts -- to the citizens through the newspapers and radio. As an indirect consequence of propaganda, citizens assented to the interning of their neighbors, friends, and relatives. The citizens -- regardless of ethnicity or nationality -- consented to the most atrocious barbarisms in the name of nationalism. Clearly, the effective use of propaganda during World War I was an excellent staging ground for its more widespread use during World War II -- especially by Joseph Goebbels who headed up the Nazis' Ministry of Propaganda.
Simply put, propaganda was a necessary part of the Allied powers' strategy as well as the Axis's powers' strategy. "These [headlines] were designed to develop and strengthen the current of hatred that was already engendered in Britain. The same thing was done in Germany – untrue headlines were tolerated and even encouraged by the German authorities" (historylearningsite, internet). Thus, the truth about the course of the war was a luxury that only the elite possessed. As for the general civilian population, they had to decipher propaganda, or ignore its source altogether. As they became more and more marginalized, concentration camps became the preferred holding tanks for a nation's dissident artists and intellectuals -- as well as other dissenters and the masses of men, women, and children (Becker 275). A breakdown in war-time communication compromised not only the truth about enemy combatants, but also colored the true actions of one's own government, as they disdained and accused the enemy of crimes against humanity.
Furthermore, propaganda justified the violence committed by Britain against the Austro-Hungarian and German armies (Fox, internet). "Thus German atrocities were afforded a particular prominence, whereas the Turkish slaughter of Armenians passed almost unnoticed. The power of atrocity stories derived in part from their ability to stand either alone, as singular acts of barbarism and moral depravity, or as a series of pre-meditated collective behaviours that condemned a nation" (Fox, internet). This analysis fits squarely with Becker's assertion that the Armenians suffered enormously by displacement, disenfranchisement, forced labor, and of course, slaughter (Becker 273). Propaganda during World War I, unlike other global engagements, confused ethnicity with nationality, labeling everyone in a willy-nilly fashion. Mislabeling was direct result of the wheels that propaganda set in motion. This confusion would last until World War II when Jews and other minorities -- despite their German citizenship and allegiance were considered on an ethnic or racial basis for "cleansing".
Moreover, propaganda, used with precision served its makers even grander purposes. Propaganda helped stir the passions of American citizens -- an amalgam of ethnicities who were not marginalized at war-time. "These shocking [atrocity] stories allowed propagandists to justify the war, encourage men to enlist, raise funds for war loans schemes, and shake the United States from its neutrality. The impact of such propaganda was enduring, lasting well into 1918 and beyond" (Fox, internet). In turn, the United States entered World War I, via the manipulative actions of war-mongering and other war profiteers, tipping the scales in favor of Britain. Was this a good thing? In retrospect, Britain may have prevailed without American aid, but the power of propaganda over the American psyche would prove to have highly-negative ramifications -- as the Great War's propaganda successes led to even greater successes in World War II, where Goebbels' propaganda machine "proved" that the Jews were responsible for Germany's socioeconomic difficulties, and transported without resistance on the part of "good" Germans to labor camps. Goebbels' propaganda campaigns, including films, depicted the camps as no less than a country club stay.
Clearly, both the Germans and the British used propaganda to suit their own purposes. Without its fresh and raw power, propaganda would have never succeeded in marginalizing the "other" so well -- be it a foreign national or an unwanted ethnic group such as the Armenians, who were hardly mentioned in most World War I propaganda. Thus, they passed under the radar of even the most devout propagandists -- making their alienation all the more conceivable. Ultimately, propaganda was a cruel fact of World War I that benefited the powers-that-were, rendering civilians voiceless. Propaganda's success with the United States was a negative scenario, as it demonstrated to the world-at-large just how mighty mass propaganda was, and just how much stronger it could -- and eventually did -- become only a handful of years after the end of the Great War.
Works Cited
Fox, Jo. "Atrocity Propaganda." (n.d.) World War One. Retrieved on 08 Dec 2014 from http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/atrocity-propaganda
Propaganda and World War One. (2014). History Learning Site. Retrieved on 08 Dec 2014 from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/propaganda_and_world_war_one.htm
