starter activity

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? starter activity
What makes this such an effective propaganda
poster?
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Would you have fallen for the propaganda?

• Controlling information during WWII

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The press

• Govt. authorised to censor newspaper articles
  under Emergency Powers Act (1938)
• Self-censorship generally common
• 1941, Daily Worker banned

Why do you think newspaper circulation actually
increased during the war?
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Radio

• BBC censored itself
• BBC reports of Dunkirk stressed successful
  evacuation NOT military retreat
• By 1945 c.25m listeners
• Light entertainment used to boost morale, e.g.
  Vera Lynn, Tommy Trinder

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Propaganda

• Encouraged people to conserve fuel, beware of
  spies, enlist
• Film posters had patriotic messages
• Newsreels before films boosted morale
• Winston Churchill elevated to heroic status

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Observation

• Mass observation reports

Look carefully at this image. What is the visual
joke that the artist is making to reinforce
message of the poster?
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? Your task

• The Imperial War Museum has decided to hold an
  exhibition of Home Front propaganda posters. The
  executive committee are looking for a poster that
  sums up all the best elements of wartime
  propaganda posters to use in its publicity for
  the show. You will be given a poster to propose
  to the committee. Explain why your poster should
  be used on the basis of its artistic merits and
  effectiveness as a piece of propaganda.

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Poster 1
Poster 3
Poster 2
Poster 4
Poster 6
Poster 5
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Poster 1
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Poster 2
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Poster 3
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Poster 4
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Poster 5
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Poster 6