CLIL History

BETWEEN WAR AND REVOLUTION (1899-1924) Wartime Propaganda The term propaganda came into common use during the Great War. Originally it had a religious meaning, as it indicated all the activities useful to spread the Catholic doctrine in the world. In wartime it became necessary to organize consent for political and military decisions, and all belligerent countries developed propaganda campaigns. They were carried out using advertising techniques, such as posters and leaflets, but newspapers had an important role to boost the morale of soldiers and civilians as well. The entire society had to be involved as all the forces of the nation had to contribute to the victory, and even children were subject to indoctrination at school. An important aspect of propaganda was censorship, which was the governmental control of the spread of information both among the armed forces and the civilian population. For example letters from the front were censored and photographs showing dead soldiers could not be published. ACTIVITY 4.C Choose the correct option in order to complete the sentences. 1. 2. The term propaganda indicated 3. Victory could only be achieved if a. an advertising technique. a. the entire population contributed. b. a religion. b. children were indoctrinated. c. a means to organize consent for a government s decisions. c. everyone read books. 4. Propaganda was used to a. produce posters and leaflets. b. improve the spirit of the population. c. improve the level of education in schools. Censorship was necessary a. to control the government. b. to spread the information received by the soldiers and civilians. c. so as not to show photographs of dead soldiers. ACTIVITY 4.D Here are two examples of propaganda posters used during World War I. Work in pairs. Each student must choose one poster and describe it to their partner considering the following aspects: a description of the poster, where the poster was printed and where it could be found, why the poster was created, who the target audience was, what type of service was being advertised, what message people got from reading the poster, your personal opinion on the effectiveness of the poster. 12 PRIMARY SOURCE