Terror from the Skies: The Propaganda of Aerial Warfare in the Emerging Mass Media of the First World War
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58997/smc.v31i2.16Abstract
Aerial warfare was developed and used in the First World War to terrorize soldiers and population centers, and modern mass media played a dominant role in spreading the fear of the new innovation of war to a global audience. This view of the propagandistic value of aerial warfare played a major role in combat strategies and tactics of the war as military and political leaders began to utilize psychological operations. This paper explores the historical context of this era in light of the emerging broadcast media of the day. The study concludes with observations of the characteristics of this new ‘terror propaganda,’ the use of which continues today.References
Benson, K., 2010. Archival analysis of the committee on public information: the relationship between propaganda, journalism and popular culture. International Journal of Technology, Knowledge & Society, 6(4), pp. 151-164.
Chief Events of the War Timeline: 1914-1919. 2014. Retrieved from the Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/rotogravures/rototime4.html
Creel, G. 1920. How we advertised America: The first telling of the amazing story of the Committee on Public Information that carried the gospel of Americanism to every corner of the globe. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Demm, E. 1993. Propaganda and Caricature in the First World War. Journal of Contemporary History, 28(1), pp. 163-192.
Evans, H. 2010. The Path to Freedom? Transocean and German Wireless Telegraphy, 19141922. Historical Social Research, 35(1), pp. 209-233.
Finch, L. 2000. Psychological propaganda: the war of ideas on ideas during the first half of the twentieth century. Armed Forces & Society, 26(3), pp. 367-382.
Foyle, D. 2004. Leading the Public to War? The Influence of American Public Opinion on the Bush Administration’s Decision to Go to War in Iraq. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 16(3), pp. 269-294.
Gatzke, H. 1942. Trans. General Carl Von Clausewitz, Principles of War. Harrisburg: Telegraph Press.
Gott strafe England Cinderella Stamp, 2014. Australian War Memorial. http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RC02377/ [Accessed March 27, 2014] Hale, J. 1975, Radio Power: Propaganda and International Broadcasting. Philadelphia.
Hoffmann, S. 2004, Thoughts on fear in global society. Social Research, 71(4), pp. 1023-1036.
Horne, J. 2002, German atrocities, 1914: fact, fantasy or fabrication? History Today, 52(4), p. 47. Jowett, G. S., & O'Donnell, V. 1986, Propaganda and Persuasion. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Kemnitz, T.M. 1973, The Cartoon as a Historical Source. Journal of interdisciplinary History, 4,(1), pp. 81-93.
Kennett, L. 1999, The First Air War: 1914-1918. Simon and Schuster.
Larson, C., & Mock, J. R. 1939, The Lost Files of the Creel Committee of 1917–19. Public Opinion Quarterly, 3(1), pp. 5-29.
Lasswell, H. 1927, The Theory of Political Propaganda, The American Political Science Review, 21, 3, August, pp. 626-631.
Lippmann, W. 1922, Public Opinion. New York.
Lutz, R. H. 1933, Studies of World War Propaganda, 1914-1933. The Journal of Modern History, 5, (4), pp. 496-516.
“Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, 2014. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/rotogravures/ [Accessed from the Library of Congress].
Oppelt, U. (2002). Film und Propaganda im Ersten Weltkrieg: Propaganda als Medienrealitat im Aktualitaten- und Dokumentarfilm. (Steiner: Stuttgart).
Seethaler, J. et. al., (2013) Selling War: The Role of Mass Media in Hostile Conflicts from World War I to the ‘War on Terror.’ Intellect, The University of Chicago Press (Chicago) pp. 29-30.
Somerville, K., 2012. Radio Propaganda and the Broadcasting of Hatred: Historical Development and Definitions. Palgrave Macmillan.
Sunset, the Pacific Monthly. 1914, April. “Can the Panama Canal be bombed from the Air?”, p. 784.
Welch, D., 2014. Propaganda, Power and Persuasion: From World War I to Wikileaks. London: I.B. Taurus.
Wilkin, B., 2013. Aviation and Propaganda in France during the First World War. French History doi: 10.1093/fh/crt084 Winkler, J., 2009. Information Warfare in World War I. The Journal of Military History, 73(3), pp. 845-867.
