Building Public Support for World War I: George Creel, the Committee on Public Information, and the Use of Propaganda

Due Wednesday, 2/5 at 9 a.m uploaded to the Assessments > Assignments dropbox on D2L.  Late papers accepted with a ticket use.

20 points for the paper; 5 points for e-mailing or posting an example by the deadline (see below.)

Don't forget citations!  See Step 4.

Step One: Learn about propaganda during WWI and some tips for analysis:

1.  Watch this video and read the website (4 short paragraphs) https://wwichangedus.org/topics/selling-the-war/

2.  Read this short article about propaganda posters during WWI: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/women-in-wwi/war-posters

3. Read through this website about propaganda analysis.  It contains some very useful skills for being an informed consumer of present-day propaganda.  Click through some of the links on the left-side menu such as "name calling" or "euphemisms."  Choose items which you think will help you to analyze your chosen posters.   https://propagandacritic.com/index.php/how-to-decode-propaganda/what-is-propaganda-analysis/

4.  You can also refer to Chapter 16 in These Truths for more background on the use of propaganda during WWI.

Step Two:  Choose posters to analyze and share an example: 

Scan through these websites to get a sense of the broad variety of posters that were produced during the war. Choose THREE posters to analyze for this assignment.  Try to choose posters with different topics.  You will earn 5 points by sharing one example of a poster with Linda -- use either e-mail or post it in Contact Linda.

https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/wwi-posters/

 https://libarchives.unl.edu/project/ww1-posters/

Step Three: The Writing Assignment

This will be a four paragraph writing assignment of around 1-1.5 pages.  In your first paragraph, summarize why the U.S. needed to utilize propaganda during WWI.  How and why did the CPI rely on posters?

Next, analyze the three posters you chose to focus on, writing one paragraph per poster.  See below for some possible questions to consider in your analysis -- you don't need to answer them all -- just wanted to give you some options.  Demonstrate your thoughtfulness and engagement!

You will be asked to discuss at least one of your posters in class during our small or large group discussion.  Don't sweat it!  It's not a graded presentation -- I just want us to have a discussion of the variety of posters you have analyzed.

• Look back at the "Propaganda Critic" website -- which propaganda devices can you identify? (Name-Calling, Glittering Generality, Transfer, Testimonial, Plain Folks, Card Stacking, Band Wagon, Fear.) Describe how the poster uses that device.
• For whom is this poster intended?
• What is the poster trying to get the audience to do? What is the poster trying to accomplish?
• What kind of logical appeals are used?  What kind of emotional appeals?
• What is the theme of the poster?
• What symbols, key words or well known images are used?
• Do you see any "hidden messages?"

 (Some questions taken from: http://enroll.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-teachers/lesson-plans/ww2-propaganda-posters.html)

Step Four: Citations

As with previous assignments, your job is to convince me you located your information in the assigned materials.  At the end of the first paragraph, tell me which sources you used.  You can say something like: paragraphs starting with "Information here" and "More information."  You can also cite the video.

Next, in your analysis of the poster, name each poster and tell me which sources you used to form your analysis.

Again, I won't be picky about citation formats, but I do need to see that you used these materials -- and preferably ONLY these materials.  Demonstrate how the assigned readings informed your analysis.