The Government's Attempt to Hide the Effects of the Blitz from the People of Britain

The Government's Attempt to Hide the Effects of the Blitz from the People of Britain

The British government had to maintain high civilian morale, within to

prevent the outbreak of panic. In order to do this, the ideal and most

effective way was propaganda. The government used its emergency powers

to control information. Its aim were to boost morale and support for

the war effort, provide important information and instructions and

censorship of information provided by the BBC and press, as this

information could aid the enemy.

The ministry of information was the most influential figure at this

period and had a lot of power in censorship. It censored the press

i.e. newspapers. When journalists had finished their articles they

were then submitted to the censor before they were released. However

most of the newspapers were willing to distort the news and were

permitted to censor themselves. There exaggeration of the news was a

great hit, they would still report bad news however distorting it by

such amounts they made it seemed like good news. Journalists wrote

with encouragement about news not to discourage the morale and

victories were announced with such enthusiasm.

Another successful use of propaganda was the radio, broadcasted from

the BBC. They too liked to manipulate news in order to sustain the

civilian morale. A prime example was the disaster at Dunkirk,

transformed into morale boosting triumph. They also hired famous

people to guest speak and report on the radio, to further boost

morale. The advertising of newsreels before movies in cinemas was the

most successful. This was a very ingenious ploy for propaganda as this

was number one for entertainment and it was a normal routine for a

person to regularly visit. To begin with cinemas were closed, as it

would be classed as a threat to be opened during the blitz. However,

soon after the war had started the government had decided to reopen

these for viewing newsreels. These would show British fighter planes

destroying German airplanes and gave patriotic messages to the

audience, giving that extra boost in morale.