The Committee on Public Information was a US government agency during World War I that aimed to support the war effort. It was headed by journalist George Creel and produced propaganda materials while censoring potentially harmful content. The agency aimed to dehumanize the enemy and promote anti-German sentiment, suppressing anti-war sentiment and shaming those who refused to take up arms.
The Committee on Public Information (CPI) was a government agency established in the United States during World War I with the goal of supporting the war effort. It was created by executive order shortly after the United States entered the war in 1917 and was closed in 1919 with the cessation of hostilities. Thanks to extensive government archives, the materials produced and used by the agency are readily available and provide insight into how the US government promoted the war to the American people.
President Woodrow Wilson appointed a journalist, George Creel, to head the CPI. Key military officials were also notable members. One aspect of the committee’s work was the censorship of potentially harmful material, and the committee kept a tight grip on what kind of war material could be released to the public.
The other arm of the Public Information Committee’s work involved the production of propaganda materials. Creel ran the committee much like an advertising agency and provided a blitz of media materials, such as magazine and newspaper articles, posters, photographs, film reels, and radio broadcasts to reach the citizens of the United States. The agency has provided speakers for public events and numerous other resources for communities across the United States.
While the committee was ostensibly set up for the purpose of providing members of the public with information about the war effort, it was in fact a propaganda agency. He used a number of techniques to dehumanize the enemy and promote anti-German sentiment in the United States with the aim of encouraging people to support the war. Atrocities committed by the other side were reported in detail and sometimes with unreliable facts, while questions about the activity of American forces and their allies were suppressed.
Despite the efforts of the PCI during the war, there was anti-war sentiment in the United States. Some people resisted the project and others spoke out in opposition to the war. This sentiment was suppressed by the agency and it also publicly mocked people speaking out against the war and encouraged citizens to do the same. People who refused to take up arms were shamed by a variety of techniques, including the distribution of white feathers to young men who appeared able and of military age to shame them for alleged cowardice.
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