Total Coverage: How the Media Shaped Command Decisions During World War II
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| Title: | Total Coverage: How the Media Shaped Command Decisions During World War II |
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| Authors: | Lovelace, Alexander G. |
| Advisors: | Trauschweizer, Ingo |
| Summary: | World War II was a media war. Most previous scholarship on the press focuses on censorship, propaganda, or the adventures of war correspondents. This dissertation takes a new direction and shows how the press and public opinion influenced the conflict. U.S. military leaders attempted to use the press as a weapon to improve morale, build public support for national strategies, assist Allied relations, confuse the enemy, and inspire soldiers. The media and public opinion, however, also began shaping military actions on the battlefield. Commanders in Europe and the Pacific competed with other Allied forces for prestige objectives, waged public relations campaigns to have their theaters receive priority for supplies, and vied with each other for headlines. This influence of the press on the battlefield demonstrates how the media was an essential, though previously overlooked, component of total war. Nevertheless, the media-military relationship formed during World War II did not translate well into later limited wars. |
| URL: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou158818861294131 |
| Database: | OpenDissertations |
| Abstract: | World War II was a media war. Most previous scholarship on the press focuses on censorship, propaganda, or the adventures of war correspondents. This dissertation takes a new direction and shows how the press and public opinion influenced the conflict. U.S. military leaders attempted to use the press as a weapon to improve morale, build public support for national strategies, assist Allied relations, confuse the enemy, and inspire soldiers. The media and public opinion, however, also began shaping military actions on the battlefield. Commanders in Europe and the Pacific competed with other Allied forces for prestige objectives, waged public relations campaigns to have their theaters receive priority for supplies, and vied with each other for headlines. This influence of the press on the battlefield demonstrates how the media was an essential, though previously overlooked, component of total war. Nevertheless, the media-military relationship formed during World War II did not translate well into later limited wars. |
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