The
Creel Committee of World War I was set up as a large advertising agency.
It had divisions and subdivisions that controlled all forms of information
that the public would know about. The committee was to carry out
Wilson's idealism of a war to end wars. What made the committee so
successful was the fact that Creel understood that to promote war domestically
there should be a limit on the amount of damaging information, implenment
voluntary guidelines for the media to follow, such as passing the Espionage
Act of 1917 and Sedition
Act of 1918 when it comes down to it the CPI was form of censorship
that controlled the way information flowed during the war years. In Harold
D. Lasswell's Propaganda Technique in the World War he states that ". .
.a new and subtler instrument must weld thousands and even million of human
beings into one amalgamated mass of hate and will and hope. . ." meaning
propaganda. Lasswell also lists 4 specific objectives of war propaganda:
To mobilize hatred against the enemy, To preserve the friendship of allies,
To preserve the friendship and, if possible, to procure the cooperation
of neutrals and To demoralize the Enemy
Hun as Enemy
(9)
George Creel
and his committe created some of the best known works of propaganda in
American history. He barraged the public with image not only in the
media but he was also able to influence the people. Creel created
a fury of support for the war and his legacy of directing the Committee
on Pulbic Information is still studied today.
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