The Committee on Public Information: A transmedia war propaganda campaign
This article summarises a PhD dissertation of the same name. It develops an understanding of how propaganda entered journalism and popular culture in the United States during World War I through an examination of materials created by the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Three CPI divisions wer...
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Sciendo
2012-07-01
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| Series: | Cultural Science |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.47 |
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| author | Benson Krystina |
| author_facet | Benson Krystina |
| author_sort | Benson Krystina |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article summarises a PhD dissertation of the same name. It develops an understanding of how propaganda entered journalism and popular culture in the United States during World War I through an examination of materials created by the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Three CPI divisions were studied: The Division of News, the Four Minute Men, and the Division of Pictorial Publicity. The methodology of archival contextualisation was created, bringing together the methods of close reading, discourse-historical contextualisation, and Piercian semiotics. A summary of relevant literature is interspersed with thematic historical developments that impacted the relationship between propaganda, journalism and popular culture. This review outlines a gap in knowledge about the archival materials as well as the relationship between propaganda, journalism and popular culture from this period. A discussion about how the expectations of persuasion, truth and amusement relate to each other when mediated in culture, using Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere further develops an understanding of propaganda as a cultural system in relation to other cultural systems – in this case, journalism and popular culture. Findings from the study include that the CPI created a transmedia war propaganda campaign, which enabled propaganda to successfully draw entertainment value from popular culture and credibility from journalism in order to influence public opinion. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2e6a5e44102f47be9ebf1f6e0ecb7abe |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1836-0416 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-07-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
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| series | Cultural Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-2e6a5e44102f47be9ebf1f6e0ecb7abe2025-02-10T13:26:38ZengSciendoCultural Science1836-04162012-07-0152628610.5334/csci.4747The Committee on Public Information: A transmedia war propaganda campaignBenson Krystina0Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty, Bond University, Robina, AustraliaThis article summarises a PhD dissertation of the same name. It develops an understanding of how propaganda entered journalism and popular culture in the United States during World War I through an examination of materials created by the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Three CPI divisions were studied: The Division of News, the Four Minute Men, and the Division of Pictorial Publicity. The methodology of archival contextualisation was created, bringing together the methods of close reading, discourse-historical contextualisation, and Piercian semiotics. A summary of relevant literature is interspersed with thematic historical developments that impacted the relationship between propaganda, journalism and popular culture. This review outlines a gap in knowledge about the archival materials as well as the relationship between propaganda, journalism and popular culture from this period. A discussion about how the expectations of persuasion, truth and amusement relate to each other when mediated in culture, using Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere further develops an understanding of propaganda as a cultural system in relation to other cultural systems – in this case, journalism and popular culture. Findings from the study include that the CPI created a transmedia war propaganda campaign, which enabled propaganda to successfully draw entertainment value from popular culture and credibility from journalism in order to influence public opinion.https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.47committee on public informationpropagandajournalismpopular culture |
| spellingShingle | Benson Krystina The Committee on Public Information: A transmedia war propaganda campaign Cultural Science committee on public information propaganda journalism popular culture |
| title | The Committee on Public Information: A transmedia war propaganda campaign |
| title_full | The Committee on Public Information: A transmedia war propaganda campaign |
| title_fullStr | The Committee on Public Information: A transmedia war propaganda campaign |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Committee on Public Information: A transmedia war propaganda campaign |
| title_short | The Committee on Public Information: A transmedia war propaganda campaign |
| title_sort | committee on public information a transmedia war propaganda campaign |
| topic | committee on public information propaganda journalism popular culture |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.47 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bensonkrystina thecommitteeonpublicinformationatransmediawarpropagandacampaign AT bensonkrystina committeeonpublicinformationatransmediawarpropagandacampaign |