Governments manufactured WWI public opinion by controlling information flow

Evidence

All this, in Lippmann’s view, helped explain why the British and American governments were able, with such surprising speed, to create a “war-will.” They presented a simple, black-and-white stereotype by which to understand the war, used every resource of the state to thoroughly propagate that view, and then prevented any dissenting analysis from reaching anyone with a sympathetic stereotype as to what the war was about. That “public opinion” had been so easy to manufacture left Lippmann an abiding pessimist about democracy’s dependence on it. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 167

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Lippmann’s pessimism about democracy, foreshadowing his later ‘Phantom Public’ and the broader ‘manufacturing consent’ tradition. — connects to: Private citizens shamed un-enlisted men with white feathers during WWI. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1195; Britain printed 54 million government war posters by the end of WWI. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 138; WWI imperial powers treated global public opinion as strategically important as the battlefield — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 662 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• WWI imperial powers treated global public opinion as strategically important as the battlefield #corroborates (0.82) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 662
• American WWI propaganda anticipated the language of fascist collective will #expands (0.82) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 154
• British WWI propaganda directly schooled Hitler on mass persuasion techniques #expands (0.78) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 173
• Official history is engineered to blind public opinion for political ends #expands (0.75)
• Modern austerity requires managing public opinion through consensus and coercion combined #expands (0.70) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 818