Existing comment:
Legacy of Gardner's Photographs: 20th Century Wars
"Every war begins as one war and becomes two, that watched by civilians and that fought by soldiers."
-- Gerald E. Linderman, Embattled Courage, 1987
20th Century changes in US mass media technology and government philosophies meant images of war were to be handled differently. The power of battlefield photos to build or reduce support for a war was seen as something that had to be controlled.
World War I: Press Censorship and Propaganda:
Rotogravure printing technology, allowing high quality photographs to be published, emerged in the early 20th Century. Instead of woodcuts lacking details, newspaper readers would see the same details that [the] photographer saw.
The United States entered WWI in April 1917 -- three years after it began. Casualty rate[s] were higher than the Civil War. A ban on publishing photos of US dead was immediately put in place and lasted for the duration of the war.
World War II: Using Images for Persuasion, not Coercion:
The United States government, like all combatants in World War II, understood how battlefield images could be used to manipulate public support.
Over 8,000 workers were employed in the Office of War Information (OWI) and similar agencies. Instead of a continual drum-beat of a single message, the US government tried to administer "doses" of information based on specific government goals.
This changed on September 20, 1943. Life Magazine published a photo held up for publication for seven months by the Office of War Information.
Life Magazine explained why:
Here lie three Americans. What shall we say of them? Shall we say that this is a fine thing, that they should give their lives for their country? Why print this picture anyway of three American boys, dead on an alien shore? The reason is that words are never enough. The eye sees.
Buna Beach, New Guinea: February 1943, George Strock. Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images. For the first twenty-one months of the war photos of US dead were banned for publication.
Patriotic propaganda, as well as a succession of censorship laws beginning with the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917, went into full swing.
Photographs in the rotogravure sections showed scores of young men registering for the draft -- the American flag visible in more than half the images. As stated by the Library Congress: September 23, 1917, New York Times, Sunday Rotagravure Section. |