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World War 1 Propaganda Essay

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Propaganda During World War I

By Khaled Almuaigel

A week after the congress approved of the war declaration that brought the US into The World War I, President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order that created the Committee on Public Information which was a government agency to advertise and mobilize public opinion on the war effort . This committee was presided by then famous journalist and a political ally of Wilson’s, George Creel. Under creels leadership, the committee had over 150,000 full time employees and volunteers who had affected the lives of every citizen of the United States. The Committee on Public Information was responsible …show more content…
Posters, movies, poems and speeches given by the four minute men were important sources that spread the propaganda in the US . All these materials had one common theme; they were portraying the Germans in bad light. They permeated an anti-German sentiment amongst the civilians in the US. Also they portrayed America and the Allied servicemen in the best possible way. They also had a common goal of involving the civilians and making them believe that they were equally important in the war efforts. There were Songs that promoted a sense of unity amongst the fellow Americans; they promoted a sense of patriotism too. Newspapers published articles that were biased and portrayed Americans as heroic, brave and patriotic. The propaganda was so effective that it alienated the Germans in the US; there were vigilante-type groups that sprung up and often shamefully persecuted the Germans. German words were purged from the language and the material published by the Committee on Public information accused Germans of spying, thus many German Americans lived in the fear of being accused as spies.
The target audience in these materials published by the Committee on Public Information were basically the American civilians. Young men and women of the society were often asked to help the US army in its efforts and other civilians to support the war effort by purchasing liberty bonds and liberty loans. To achieve these goals, the committee bombarded the civilian population with its

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