Propaganda & Mass Persuasion: 03/02/2008 - 03/09/2008

Friday, March 07, 2008

Media The New Soldier?

During World War II, when media is at its continuing boom from the previous war, advertising schemes were coming out left and right. Bonds, buy Bonds to help our soldiers win this war, yes this did help us with sending supplies and raising money for the war effort, but in some ways this was one of the only way the full focus was on our fighting and dying soldiers. Everything was themed war, lets do this and that to help our soldiers, things that had no relevance to the war hada a war theme, they helped them but it took the focus off the war and off the soldiers. It was as if, the media would consume everything and no attention would have been paid to the soldiers through the public. C.R. Larrabee says, "Others try to climb aboard the wartime bandwagon by using a war theme for products that are remotely, if at all, related to our victory effort. A few are still so unimaginative as to think that the public will believe that without their products the war might well be lost." In a lot of ways the media abused advertising and putting messages in our heads that if we don't save and don't by their products then we are making our men overseas lose this war, it's false. Whatever that did come from these advertisements did help us but the point is that companies and all the media almost completely shut out the people who were fighting, they wanted there products to be the things that you remember and there products that are going to help you the citizen through the day. This is juts not right and not fair to our soldiers, it was the media abusing their powers and the Government itself was involved with pushing these ideas upon everybody. As much as the media was at fault, so was our own Government, could there have been the possibility that the Government was doing this to hide facts and projects about the war? It's just a small question to consider.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Japanese: People or Souvenirs?


“I wish we were fighting against Germans. They are human beings, like us.....but the japs are like animals...they take to the jungle as if they had been bred there, and like some beasts you never see them until they are dead" - ( soldier fighting Japanese)Fussel pg.116

This quote from Paul Fussels "Wartime", is a statement made by a soldier during World War II and it is the perfect example of the way that soldiers and Americans in general who lived during this time period were taught to think about their Japanese soldier enemies. According to Fussel the Japanese were thought of as being "jackals", "monkey-men", and even "sub-humans". Their skulls were skinned and cleaned and brought home by soldiers as souvenirs of the war and the souvenir making got so out of hand at one point that the commander in chief of the pacific fleet made it against war policy to take the body part of the enemy as a souvenir. For the personnel in charge of the war effort dehumanizing the enemy was used as a means to get American Soldiers to kill Japanese Soldiers without regret. This is crucial during a war. Obviously if a soldier views another soldier as being like he or she they will be less likely to kill them. That is the way a human being who hunts and kills an animal for food or sport is able to do so. The animal is seen as a lesser life form. That is how the Japanese were viewed during World War II. They were "typecast" as inhuman and it worked like a charm.

Anglo-Saxons' War

In Paul Fussell's "Wartime" an entire chapter is devoted to the different type-casting in the War. Soldiers created social hierarchy within the different branches of the military and within their own companies. Also, alliances were categorized by ethnicity and race. Fussell explains,
"In fiction or film, the GI might be Jewish or Italian, Polish or Hispanic or "Colored," but never in advertising, where only ideal imagery can be allowed to enter. In advertising, the Allied war is fought by white Anglo-Saxons, officers or aviators, with neat, short hair, clear eyes, gleaming teeth, and well-defined jawlines." Promoting the war through the media meant creating an image of the ideal WASP in high ranking and "respectable" military positions. In realistic or true life mediums, soldiers were represented as the ideal and acceptable clean cut vision of the Caucasian troops which exposes society's racism. Although different countries of equally diverse cultural backgrounds were present on the front, they were underrepresented in advertising. The misrepresentation of the Allied troops in advertising reflects the views and prejudices of society as a whole.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Mom's Back From War!




"Creating Rosie the Riveter"




Maureen H.









"wartime employment of woman led to a more radical redefinition of female roles for an audience most likely to have remained in the home."





When woman were asked to help and serve their Country for the war effort they were rewarded with "Yes Mam you did a great job, now your mans home and you can get to cookin and cleanin again". The packet truly expresses how woman were doing a great job and making a huge distribution of war materials and jobs that men held. After woman working in these factories and holding usually male dominated occupations, why didn't the view of America change? Why was it that woman were not allowed to continue their work when their husbands and sons came back home? Where they not good enough for America to keep that strong noble idealistic character going? Were woman weaker, and not smart enough? Betty Friedan wrote about how even woman sometimes felt fit that this taught them a personal goal instead of a personal dream these woman had.
The packet describes that it gave woman a strong, capable fighting tough approach to life and woman really took care of business. I just wish that after World War II, woman were treated with more respect and loyalty from their country that they served in as well. They kept the belts moving in the factories, the children alive, the functioning of life in our country and they get posters and media spreading how they must keep their bodies and minds healthy for America and their men!


The Real Deal with Type- Casting



WarTime


Paul Fussell








"Looking out upon the wartime world, soldiers and civilians alike reduce it to a simplified sketch featuring a limited series of classifications into which people, in the process dehumanized and deprived of individuality or ecentricity, are fitted."





Fussell describes war and the real reasons of how and why discrimination occurs in the war. He explains the different realities we see when we study history and the media that we read and see, and what really happens when you are a soldier and you are following a pack, and a leader. What I don't understand is the fact that even men that fought for our country to do justice still went out and made up some of these names and quotes and justified them to the other men and woman out there.Names in the chapter including beasts, monkey-men, Slavs, Japs and many more only furthered the education of these men and the thought that "Americans" had the right to do so. While reading this book, I ask do I really see the picture of war and propaganda all these years the way I was suppose to?


Perception and Propaganda


“The real war was tragic and ironic, beyond the power of any literary or philosophical analysis to suggest, but in unbombed America especially, the meaning of the war seemed inaccessible. As experience, thus, the suffering was wasted. The tricks of publicity and advertising might have succeeded in sweetening the actualities of Vietnam if television and a vigorous uncensored moral journalism hadn’t been brought to bear. America has not yet understood what the Second World War was like and has thus been unable to use such understanding to re-interpret and re-define the national reality and to arrive at something like public maturity.” (Fussell 268)

I found this quote particularly interesting because it suggests a direct connection between the use of propaganda and a countries status during wartime. It talks about how if used appropriately, the tools of the media may be used to sway and persuade public opinion in light of the war effort. In the passage, the author compares the media’s coverage of World War II and Vietnam. In doing so he notes that, hadn’t it been for a different approach of the press used during America’s involvement in Vietnam, the public’s insight might have been far different. Therefore, we’ve discovered that propaganda has a direct effect on a public’s perception, understanding and involvement in a time of war.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

A girl loves a man in a UNIFORM.

During this time of war Ads in magazines or billboards showed something pertaining to the army and the war. The way ads were portrayed was usually handsome or pretty soldiers laughing having a good time, which showed war wasn't always so dim. Ads showed soldiers in a uniform with a pretty girl and it influenced a lot of youths who had to see this everywhere they looked. These ads along with other propagated media shoot through the kids brains until they submit and join the cause.
The youth were important in the political propaganda conspiracy because their young and naive minds were easily molded and the new wave of media was their generations tool for easy propaganda. Ads stressed the protection of children and often used them as reasons to agree with the war. many 18 year old boys were shipped overseas and many did not come back to live full lives. the results of mass persuasion in a governmental campaign.

Women the secret weapon to win the war?


"It is high time that the housewife, patriotically cooperating with her Government in conservation, salvage, War Bond and Stamp buying, care of tires and all the other home campaigns, begins to understand that the invitation to women to go to work outside their homes means the woman who has not worked in a paying job before."


This quote talks about what was happening not on the war front, but back at home. While the men were at war, they women were at home. It was there that they believed that they could not be any help towards the war. This is when the government believed that they actually could be some assistance towards the war. They felt that women can do the small things to help out during the war. They believed that they could buy War Bonds, spread the word about the war, and even help with the wounded soldiers. This was very unorthodox, but it seemed that this would be the best idea in helping gain support for the war.

Women and War, were they made for each other?


"Indeed, the great puzzle of the 1940s has been the paradoxical spawning of a reactionary postwar feminine mystique by a crisis that necessitated radical revision of traditional views."
Maureen Honey
This quote talks about how the war really changed they way we view our American women. Before the war women usually steered clear of the working class, but when times got rough the U.S. needed more help. Who did they look for, to gain this extra support, housewives. At this time it seemed outrageous, but the U.S. needed help and they considered using any help they can get. After the war it seemed that all was well, except the fact that all these working women now needed jobs to support themselves. With the men back at home, they were the ones getting the jobs, and for those women who had lost there men to war, who was going to support them and their families. This was a problem that the women were facing, while at war women can work, but now with the men home there was no place for women in the workplace.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Precision Bombing will win the war...not!

On page 16 of the book 'Wartime' by Paul Fussell is a passage which ably demonstrates how military leaders lie not only to the public and political leaders, but themselves:


"...U.S. Strategic Bomber Survey, which ascertained, among other findings, that German military and industrial production seemed to increase-just like civilian determination not to surrender-the more bombs were dropped."


Why were the lives of airmen wasted when it became obvious bombing cities was having the opposite of the desired effect? Perhaps military leaders believed things would improve with time. Perhaps they did not want to look like fools (too late!). Perhaps it was 'the fog of war'. in any event, reading this book leads to the inescapable conclusion that a depressingly large number of servicemen from all sides die in war due to the gross incompetence of military and political leaders. Yet the same 'play' is is revived for yet another performance for almost every generation of Americans...




I Am Public Opinion!

"I will judge you not by your mad cheers as our boys march away to whatever fate may have in store for them.

I will judge you not by the warmth of tears you shed over the lists of the dead and the injured that come to us from time to time.

But, as wise, 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 safe."

During World War I, you had a choice. Fight or buy War Bonds. The form of a person representing public opionion in this poem will give judgement to those who sit idly by and do nothing for the ones putting themselves on the line to provide a better future for the people back at home.

Forget tears and cheers! It does nothing for the ones fighting for you. Support the war! Buying bonds was the only way to provide full support to the army.

"I feel that public opinion has its source in the minds of people, that it has its base in reason, and that it expresses slow-formed convictions rather than any temporary excitement or any passing passion of the moment." (Creel, Document 32)

And that "human" form of public opinion is doing just that. Passing judgement without giving any form of temporary relief to the people.

People do need to realize that back then, you needed to do something. Buying war bonds was the only way to help.