In World War 1 there were two votes held for conscription in Australia. Of course, because of this there were many propaganda posters around. The propaganda posters advertised either “for” or “against” conscription. They worked in the same way as recruitment posters worked. No matter what they advertised, they all used one or more of the following techniques:
- Persuasion – convincing arguments that choosing/not choosing conscription would be the best thing for society.
- Fear – fear that if conscription isn’t put in place, not enough people would enlist; causing Britain to lose the war and Australia would be attacked.
- Guilt – If conscription is not put in place, men aren’t helping out their country.
- Patriotism/hate for Germans – If conscription is not put in place, people won’t enlist and Australia will lose pride and possibly be attacked by Germans.
Propaganda played a large role in convincing people whether to vote for or against. Both times the vote for against won over; and this is most likely because the propaganda against conscription was more effective. Perhaps families saw the posters advocating a “no” vote, and realised that the man of the household would be sent against his will and could actually die overseas and never return home.
No comments:
Post a Comment