Propaganda was crucial to U.S. involvement in World War I. How does propaganda influence people’s opinions?
THE YEAR IS 1917 AND THE UNITED STATES IS ABOUT TO ENTER WORLD WAR I
World War I began with an assassination in Eastern Europe in 1914, but quickly spread as more countries got involved. By 1917, the U.S. could no longer remain neutral. In April of that year, Congress declared war on Germany and the military mobilization effort kicked into gear. The U.S. military needed more young men to enlist and the federal government wanted American citizens to rally their support behind the war effort. This led to the creation of the U.S. government’s Division of Pictorial Publicity.
Led by artist and illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, artists from all over the country created posters encouraging citizens to “do their part” to support the war. Posters and ads went up all over, encouraging people to enlist or to work in industries that supported the war. Some posters were designed to make the enemy look evil and dangerous, or to show the United States and their allies as virtuous and good. Other posters showed women working in jobs that had traditionally been held by men. The goal was to recruit female workers who would allow factories to remain open as more and more young men were sent to fight in Europe. The posters helped drive a strong sense of unity and patriotism nationwide and built support for unpopular measures, like rationing food and fuel.
Posters, film clips, songs, and movies all helped to promote a particular opinion about World War I, and to rally positive support for U.S. and Allied troops.
Your Challenge
Propaganda is designed to encourage people to take a certain position or action. Explore the primary sources. How was propaganda used during World War I? Was it effective in meeting its goals? Make your case.
Teachers
Have your students take this challenge and make their case! To begin, send your students to this website with this challenge’s code.
Propaganda is information, primarily biased or one-sided, that is used to promote or publicize a particular cause or point of view. Propaganda is often used in advertising and politics.
Propaganda is designed to encourage people to take a certain position or action. Explore the primary sources. How was propaganda used during World War I? Was it effective in meeting its goals? Make your case.
individual and group actions taken to improve or identify areas of concern or causes to address
conservation
using natural resources in a responsible way
D
discrimination
unfair treatment of people based on something like race, gender, or age
disenfranchisement
the practice of not allowing, or depriving, someone of their rights
F
federal oversight
the responsibility of the federal government to keep a close watch on organizations and make sure they are following specific rules
federalism
a system of government that divides power to make laws between the national, state, and local levels
freedom of press
the right of newspapers, magazines, websites, and other publications to report news without being controlled by the government
freedom of speech
the right to express your opinions without government interference. This right is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution
I
immigrant
a person who comes to a country to live there
immigration
the act or instance of coming into a foreign country to live
indigenous
the original or earliest known inhabitants of an area, with their own culture and language, before colonists and settlers began to occupy the land
Industrial Revolution
the period of time in the 18th and 19th century when machines were widely used to produce goods
internment
the act of putting someone in a prison for political reasons or during a war
J
Jim Crow laws
race-based laws to force the legal separation of African Americans and white people in public places in southern United States
P
political protest
a public demonstration of disapproval related to the actions or policies of the government
political speech
a statement made by a candidate for office about how government should be run, and any other opinions of the political process or social issues
preservation
setting aside the land and protecting it as is
propaganda
information, primarily biased or one-sided, that is used to promote or publicize a particular cause or point of view
R
representative democracy
a system of government where all eligible citizens vote to elect people to pass laws for them
S
segregation
the separation of people based on their race, ethnicity, gender, or religion
sovereignty
the right to “to have control over your own lands, and resources, and assets, and to have control over your own vision for the future, and to be able to absolutely determine your own destiny.” Wilma Pearl Mankiller (Former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation)
V
voter suppression
the act of preventing a person or groups of people from voting even when they are eligible to vote
W
worker protection laws
laws designed to protect workers from conditions that are harmful to employees’ life and health
Your Challenge
Propaganda is designed to encourage people to take a certain position or action. Explore the primary sources. How was propaganda used during World War I? Was it effective in meeting its goals? Make your case.
To get started, give your folder a title and description, save, and then click the blue + box to take notes on a primary source.
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This view shows a Single Challenge. Each Challenge is a scenario based on a real civics issue. There are additional thoughts to help you consider the scenario in the blue Ideas tab along the right side of the screen.
Teachers
Use this view to find a Challenge to give to your students. Read through the entire Challenge scenario to get a feel for not only the issue at hand, but the angle this scenario wants students to take in making a Case.
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Students
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Your Challenge contains directions on how to formulate a Case
Be sure to check the Primary Sources tab. The items you find there are critical because you will be using them as Evidence to piece together your Case.
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What do I do here?
Read the challenge and look over the primary sources.
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When you’re ready, click on the blue Create My Case button to begin. Then you’ll investigate the primary sources and add your own notes to build your case.
If you’re stuck, check the blue Help tab on the right side of your screen. Plus, the challenge and each primary source has specific tips to help you along, available from the blue Ideas tab that appears just below Help.
Thinking Questions
What different kinds of propaganda are there? Can you think of examples of propaganda today?
How are familiar symbols and images used in propaganda?
How does propaganda impact people?
Help
This is a collection of Primary Sources for the Challenge you’re reviewing. These are documents, photographs, videos, political cartoons, and more, from the Library of Congress, selected to help you make your Case.
To investigate any Primary Source, simply click into it to see it in detail.
Choose any Primary Source to see it in detail
Teachers
Review these Primary Sources so you understand what your student will be working with. Students are able take entire sources, or parts of a source using cropping tools, and make notes to serve as Evidence when they make their Case.
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Students
Along with the Challenge scenario, review these Primary Sources carefully. Think about what each one means in relation to the issues of the Challenge. You’ll be using these sources to make Evidence that forms your Case.
Help
Using the Challenge scenario and the Primary Sources association, it’s time to make your Case. A Case consists of one or more folders, each of which can contain Evidence you find within the available Primary Sources. If you’re having trouble visualizing what you will be making, jump down to the Presentation section below first.
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Once you click that, you’ll be take to the Primary Sources listing for your Challenge. Select a Primary Source and inspect it, looking for clues. Remember, there are always ideas to help you in the tabs along the right side.
Once you’ve cropped an image to find a particular detail, trimmed a video, or whatever else you’ve selected as your Evidence, and added your own note, you’ll be returned to My Case with your piece(s) of Evidence in place within a folder. As you add Evidence, you can decide what your folder is about.
This folder has been filled in with a title, description, and two pieces of Evidence taken from Primary Sources.
In this example image, we’ve decided our folder is about Opinions. You can enter a title and description, but always be sure to hit Save after you make edits to these folder details.
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Of course, you’re not limited to just one folder. Your presentation can cover any number of ideas, and each can be a folder for organization. To make a new folder, just click the Create New Folder button.
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This shows a second folder below the first, also including a title, description and some Evidence.
As you continue to add folders, and add Evidence into folders, you may decide things aren’t organized just how you’d like. That’s fine. You can always move things around. Simply drag and drop pieces of Evidence between folders, or to reorder them within a folder. And you can reorder your folders by drag and drop, too.
If you have collected some Evidence but don’t think it belongs in the folder where it was originally placed, simply drag it to another folder.If you don’t like the order of your folders, simply drag them to reorder.
So, that’s how you put together a Case and keep it organized. What’s next?
Well, you can use your Case simply as a reference, like if you are writing a paper or having a debate. Or you can directly present your Case from this website, using your Case’s presentation URL.
A Presentation
You may want to present your Case directly from this website, like a PowerPoint slide show. You might even turn in your presentation URL to your teacher to complete your Challenge assignment. But of course, you don’t want to give away your Case edit code, since that’s lets anyone make changes to your Case. To keep your Case editing private for yourself, but allow others to see your Case online, share your Case Presentation URL.
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This begins with your title screen.
Your Case title and description start the presentation
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Your folder titles and descriptions serve to organize your presentation
After the folder information, the presentation steps through each piece of Evidence in that folder, in order, one at a time.
Each piece of Evidence is presented as you cropped it, with your notes below
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Your Case presentation continues through each of your pieces of evidence and through all of your folders, one at a time.
So, that’s how you make a Case and give it as a presentation. Good luck!
Help
This is where you can Customize a Challenge. You’re able to modify the title, description, scenario, and more, as well as alter the Primary Sources, and leave notes specifically for your students.
There are a number of fields you can customize, but before you get started, it would be good to know where all of these things will end up. Here’s a handy reference, with customizable field names listed in orange.
The sections noted by orange field names can be customized by you.
At the top of the screen, you’ll see fields that allow you to edit the title and description, followed by fields for the full text, prompt, and highlighted text.
Editing a Custom Challenge’s title and descriptionEditing a Custom Challenge’s full textEditing a Custom Challenge’s promptEditing a Custom Challenge’s Highlighted Text
Below all of the above, you’ll see a space to enter three Challenge Prompts. These are little bits of extra information to help spur your students when they are making a case.
Editing a Custom Challenge’s prompts
But where do those appear? They show up in the Ideas tab that sits along the right side of the screen when your students are working with your Challenge. Clicking that tab shows the prompts you’ve entered.
Challenge Prompts appear from the Idea tab
Customizing Primary Sources
You may want to change the Primary Sources being used for your custom Challenge. At the bottom of the Customization screen, you can do so.
Customizing Primary Sources
For each Primary Source you have associated with your custom Challenge, you can enter a special teacher’s note.
Adding a teacher’s note to Primary Sources
These notes appear from the special teacher notes tab when students are looking at individual Primary Sources.
Viewing a teacher note from an individual Primary Source
You can remove any Primary Source you don’t want to include simply by clicking the Remove This Source button associated with it.
Plus, you can add new Primary Sources from our pool of available options. [Ed. Note: There are approximately 120 sources currently in the database, with plans to add more.]
Add New Sources
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Select new Primary Sources to include in your custom Challenge
When you have all the text fields updated for your Challenge and all the Primary Sources in place, click the Save Your Custom Challenge button.
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