The American Press Presses The First World War

 “It is a bit jarring to think that large crowds came out in America to cheer the outbreak of war, that there were many Americans who believed that war needed to be celebrated” (O’Brien 2013). 

Press and war have a very interesting relationship. Back in 1914, at the start of the first world war, there were several rallies and celebrations after the US entered the war. There was a lot of outrage against Wilson for running his campaign on keeping the US out of the war, but a lot of people approached the major historical moment with excitement. 

“They claim that there is a significant part of American public opinion that naturally gravitates toward warfare, which they term the “hawks,” and that the next crucial group is the one that will support involvement in a war if it is seen as winnable” (O’Brien 2013). War was something a lot of Americans viewed as an opportunity to show their strength and resilience. It gives the public something to root for and gives people the division and conflict they are looking for.

This is a very heavy topic and a lot of innocent people lost their lives or loved ones in the war, but the way the war was portrayed in the media was as if it was a great step forward for the US. People started to view the war in a positive way because the press was making it so. Each small victory would be broadcast all over the nation and the press would feed off of the hope the public felt. 

“Lippmann saw the press as a crucial agent in setting the national mood over foreign crises, and dangerously influential when it acted out of partisan or sensationalist impulses” (O’Brien 2013). The writer of Public Opinion, Walter Lippmann believes that the press has heavily influenced the way the public perceives and responds to historical events or issues. 

In 1914, the press made the US entry into World War 1 seem like a tremendous victory and changed the way the public viewed war. The war was also something that seemed very far away to a lot of people in the US so getting weekly updates on who’s winning and what’s happening overseas. It also gave way to a lot of uprising against the government. The media contributed to the mass aggression against president wilson and women started working for the war efforts. The more they would hear about the war, the more they would work to produce war materials, ration food, and support the troops that were fighting. 

Media has a tight grip on how we perceive and what we perceive. They control the information and how we respond to certain situations. “One of the main questions is to what degree public opinion on war (and foreign policy in general) is determined by elite policy makers and institutions such as the media” (O’Brien 2013). There is a lot that the press were able to do with just a few words on a page. 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44254304?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents