Blackton, Smith and Rock

In 1897 our nation was about to slowly emerge as a world power. The United States was doing well in its war with spain. In New York City at the Morse building J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith wrote "Tearing Down the Spanish Flag" which was a great success. Motion picture cameras could not get to the front lines of the war . This did not stop Edward Amet. Amet went into making war pictures like the sinking of the Admiral Cervera's fleet in Santiago. I think he was so clever. Amet made the Bay of Santiago in a tub all miniature with all of the ships in great detail. He also put guns on the ship's. They pushed buttons to control the ships and gun movements, and created waves too. He showed the whole Navy battle of Santiago. What a great idea. He took his pictures to the U.S. Naval Training Station in Lake Bluff, Ill. and they were very impressed. I found it amusing and odd.

House of Truth

"House of Truth" What an interesting name to give to an organization that was so successful in manipulating the American Public. George Creel, the direct or the committee of Public Information was successful in orchestrating advertising, publications, journalists, education, artists, Hollywood, the film industry and the Four Minute Men to compose a dedicated public support for the War.

"To achieve the ideological mobilization of an entire nation and to sell
America's vision of the war globally, an extensive fabric of persuasion would
have to be knit."

Not only was he successful in controlling the American support for the war, but he used the CPI to control the public in monitoring each other and encouraged people to report others who appeared to be working for the Germans.

Using images that played on the emotions of America, Creel was successful at using his web of propaganda, known as the CPI, to persuade the thoughts and sentiments of middle-class Americans to support a war of Democracy that was originally believed to be the rich man's war.

Meaning of Propaganda

According to Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell:

"A communication approach to the study of propaganda enables us to isolate its communicative variables, to determine the relationship of message to context, to examine intentionality, to examine the responses and responsibilities of the audience, and to trace the development of propagandistic communication as a process."

While propaganda and persuasion often get intertwined, propaganda has its own meaning. It differs from persuasion because propaganda is about deliberate promoting of ideas, while persuasion is more about convincing the audience of an idea. Propaganda is studied in several different courses of study, but stands out mostly in the area of journalism.

http://www.purewatergazette.net/propagandainamerica.htm

Blackton, Smith and Rock

In the chapter titled Blackton, Smith, and Rock the motion picture industry was influenced by three pioneers of vitagraph cinematography. Their names were Albert E. Smith, J. Stuart Blackton, and William T. Rock. Their imitation of the Spanish-American war was one of the earliest works of motion-picture propaganda.

"In the larger centers of Chicago and New York the motion picture was undergoing evolutionary growth with the birth of a topical or news bearing function in connection with the war."

Since the movie makers could not film actual war footage they staged their own re-enactments and proclaimed it as real footage. They used miniature models, camera tricks, and props to influence the audience. The vitagraph, which gives the illusion of continuous motion by moving a series of pictures very rapidly was the machine used for motion picture propaganda. Their film Tearing Down the Spanish Flag was a great success and paved the way for other movie makers.

http://www.victorian-cinema.net/rock.htm

The Great War - "The Four Minute Men"

During the early years leading up to WWI (The Great War), President Wilson needed to combat the propaganda coming out of Germany. What was developed was an interesting facet in American History. "The Four Minute Men", a group of men assigned to the US Committee of Public Information, were given the task of directly combating German propaganda with American propaganda. Speeches were written, meetings were held, rallies were organized, and the American population was mobilized by these men. The nickname of this group was said to come from the time limit set on most of their speeches. In our reading packet, we were given an article containing suggestions to these "Four Minute Men" for speeches to be given to promote the purchasing of war bonds. Suggestions such as reinforcing patriotism, strengthening our alliances, giving liberty to the world, honesty, avoiding over-optimism, endurance, promoting war bonds, and reaching out to the listener soul and love of country. They were to tell of stories of survival and sacrifice, again reaching out to the listener's patriotism. Their ultimate goal was to promote the war and combat enemy propaganda. They played an integral part of the war effort.

HOUSE OF TRUTH

"We let our sharks prey on them, we let poverty swamp them, we did not teach them English"(105)

I picked this particular quote because the European immigrants who came to the United States believed that they were coming over her to persue the American dream, but got placed in urban areas which were in ruins. The non-natives were targeted to support the war effort ,but it proved to be an useless effort. Anyone whowere considered " Working-class" considered the war to be a "rich's man's war"

Yellow Journalism

I read The Growth and Expansion of Public Opinion by E.L. Godkin. "Newspapers are mad to sell" is a quote from the article and I agree with that. What I disagree with is the exaggeration of the truth to sell newspapers. I think newspapers need to be truthful because people read them believing that they are getting the truth. Newspapers have a responsibility to their readers to be honest because for a lot of them, it is the only source of information that they have. If newspapers can not be exciting and entertaining without being deceitful then maybe entertainment should be saved for other outlets.

"What makes it most marketable is that it is probable and agreeable, though
disagreeable news sells nearly as well. In the tumult of a great war, when the
rules of evidence are suspended by passion or anxiety, invention, too, is easy,
and has its velue, and is pretty sure never to be punished."

The worst part of telling lies is that there is no punishment for the lies created by the newspapers which makes it easier for them to tell them. They can say anything to make a buck and I don't think that is right.

Public opinion or is it just your own ????

So after reading Walter Lippmann's Public opinion it made me think about how we have things like this happening today instead of war bonds its actually spending in general the govt wants us to spend to make sure we keep the economy moving or another example would be after 9/11 the air lines wanted us to keep flying so they would not lose money which would intern have a huge amount of people losing money. I that that in the post by bozwald when he said that "every person has his own agenda and interests; but if the factors are in the right place and his interest is extraoridnary, who says that he is going to just see a phase or small apect of that event, and not consume the entire event for what it really is." I thought that this was exactly right i mean each person is going to see what they need to see in order to make a decision even if it is the wrong one.


This is kind of off topic but I was thinking about this if we wanted to spark up people buying and make alot of money would this work? I think we should add another state like make puerto rico a state which would mean that we would have to change the flag to add 51 stars this gives people more jobs in making flags then more people now have to buy new flags and dispose of the old ones so now flag makers and santation have more work which is more money then stamps could make a new flag thats just one thing they could do i just think that would generate alot of money am i worng i know that this isnt really for this part of the class i just had a question about it

Class Schedule 2/20-3/13

Propaganda in the Great War: The Committee for Public Information.
(Thursday 2/22, Tuesday 2/28)
Readings:
(Th. 2/22): Stuart Ewen, “House of Truth.”
“New York Shelled on ‘Movie’ Screen,” NYT, 1915.
CPI documents: “The Issues of the War at a Glance,” 1918.
Four Minute Men Bulletin “Fourth Liberty Loan,” 1918.
Bulletin for Cartoonists, Oct. 5, 1918.
Selected Advertisements. 1918.
The Brownies Book, “America for All” 1920
(Th. 2/22): George Creel, “Public Opinion in Wartime,” 1918.
Edward Bernays, “Crystallizing Public Opinion,” 1925.
Walter Lippmann, from Public Opinion, & Phantom Public, 1922-5.

First Essay Due: Tuesday 3/6

Mobilizing the Homefront: Propaganda in the Good War
(Thursday 3/1, Tuesday 3/6, Thursday 3/8)
Readings:
Paul Fussell, Wartime 1989: “Precision Bombing,”“Type-casting,” “Accentuate the Positive,” “With One Voice,” & “Deprivation.”
Maureen Honey, “Remembering Rosie: Advertising Images of Women in WWII,” 1995.
Excerpts from the OWI’s “Magazine War Guide,” 1943.
W.J. Weir, “Opportunity!” 1942.
Clyde Bedell, “Emotional War Copy,” 1942.
Helen Hibbard Dau, “The Lieutenant Changes his Mind,” 1945.
“Advertising in Wartime,” 1944.
Selected Magazine Advertisements,
Film: “Rosie the Riveter”

Media & Mass Society: Postwar America, Public Relation & Politics
(Tuesday 3/13)
Readings:
Edward Bernays, “Engineering Consent,” 1947.
Robert S. Pears, “Public Relations Aspects of Postwar Planning,” 1943.
C. Wright Mills, “Mass Society” 1956.

Walter Lippmanns' Public Opinion

In Walter Lippmann's book 'Public Opinion' he says, "Of any public event that has wide effects we see at best only a phase and an aspect."Lippmanns' statement to me all depends on the person viewing the event and some other factors. Other factors would be how large is the event, is it covered nationally or just locally. Can a person view it on a television, radio, or is it seen just in a newspaper or magazine. These all make a difference because some people can interpret things better visually, while others interpret them better by just listening and audio. To me people are always going to take something away from what they are interested in. Depending on a persons' interest in the subject matter of the event taking place is what is going to be the deciding factor on what they want to take out of that event. Ultimately, Lippmanns' comment "A report is the joint product of the knower and known, in which the role of the observer is always selective and usually creative. The facts we see depend on where we are placed...". (Lippmann 2) Finally, every person has his own agenda and interests; but if the factors are in the right place and his interest is extraoridnary, who says that he is going to just see a phase or small apect of that event, and not consume the entire event for what it really is.

Plutocracy the United States Down Fall

In the article written by William Graham Sumner, he says " The great foe of democracy now and in the near future is plutocracy. Every year that passses brings out this antagonism more distinctly. It is to be the social war of the twentieth century. In that war militarism, expansion, and imperialism will all favor plutocracy."
Personally, I feel that Graham has some amazing foresight after reading his article. In todays society, the government of the United States has set up society to favor the wealthy class. Maybe they did not intentionally do this, but the wealthy have more say and control over major issues and conflicts occuring in our country. Having money provides people with more oppurtunites to get ahead and in the present day the middle and lower classes struggle every day to make a living for themselves and their families.
Next, Graham says, "they will call for a large public debt and taxes, and these things especially tend to make men unequal, because any social burdens bear more heavily on the weak than on the strong, and so make the weak weaker and the strong stronger. Therefore expansion and militarism are a grand onslaught of democracy."
Ultimately, this quote to me hits the nail on the head. With the war against terrorism in Iraq still ongoing our government in my opinion has underlying reasons for still being there. One big one to me is oil, which if nobody knew George Bush owns at least one oil company. The money that our government has invested in the war could be going to other important issues. Its no secret that the war has not gone the way we have seen fit, but nothing seems to be changing and our country keeps losing invaluable money that could be spent on other vital issues. Another fact about living on Long Island is that I know taxes have gone up every year and it is harder and harder to stay living here. Finally, I agree with Grahams' article and what he says "expansion and militarism" have endangered the citizens of this country. I would like to see these conflicts change for the better not only for myself, but for the other great citizens of this country.

'I Am Public Opinion

"But, as wise as I am just, I will judge you by the material aid you give to the fighting men who are facing death that you may live and move and have your being in a world made safe."

With this being said, it seemed very clear to the people of the United States what all of this was about. This little poem was meant to show and push Americans toward spending more money towards the war effort and buying bonds. It goes on to make them (US Citizens) feel as if they are not doing their patriotic duty in buying bonds and supporting the war effort when, in this poem, it is stated as being said:

"But if you have the money to buy, and do not buy, I will make this No Man's Land for you!"

Clearly, all of this of this propoganda is saying that you are not defined as a citizen or country by the things you do and the compassion you show but by the money and dollars that you are willing to spend.

I am Public Opinion

All men fear me!

I declare that Uncle Sam shall not go to his kness to buy his bonds.
That is no position for a fighting man. But if you have the money to buy,
and do not buy, I will make this No Man's Land for you!

I warn you-don't talk patriotism over here, unless your money is talking
victory Over There.

I am Public Opinion!


This quote from an advertisement for the Fourth Liberty Loan campaign, which was written in the form of a poem, was written for the purpose of persuading Americans to buy government bonds to support the war effort. Note the threatening tone, as in "I am warning you" and "I will make this No Man's Land for you!" Americans were being made to feel that it was their moral and financial obligation to support the war effort and, anyone who did not participate in the war bond program, was being unpatriotic and unworthy of calling themself an American.

Talk about advertising's hard sell! This ad, commissioned by the notorious U.S. Govt. Comm. on Public Information, left no room for argument. Americans were not supposed to question the war effort, for even one moment. The simple equation was that to be American = to be pro war. After all, America was charged with a very large task, as in, "Make the world safe for democracy!" How could Americans argue with that?

Old Blogger VS. New Blogger Sign-On

It's driving me crazy that I can't sign on to (old) Blogger without being asked to sign on to New Blogger and the system won't let me sign on. I waste more time waiting to just get in to the system and it's very frustrating. Anyone else having the same problem???