Tag: Other Theses

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History

Sarah Davies: ‘Propaganda and Popular Opinion in Soviet Russia, 1934-41’

Davies, S.R., ‘Propaganda and popular opinion in Soviet Russia, 1934-41’
D.Phil completed 1994. Oxford University

Abstract: This thesis brings to light hitherto highly classified material from Russian party and state archives, and addresses several of the many new questions this material raises. It is hoped that the result of this endeavour is an original perspective on Soviet society and on some of the workings of the Soviet system in this period. In particular, Soviet society is shown to be less passive and atomised than some earlier accounts have suggested. From the time of the XVII party congress in 1934, the Soviet regime devoted increasing attention to agitation and propaganda with the aim of moulding the opinions of ordinary people. All forms of public communication acquired a uniformity of both style and content. Although there were fluctuations in the methods, intensity and direction of the propaganda, the essential messages did not change. These messages revolved around the ideas of the cult of Stalin and other leaders and the unity and well-being of the people. It was claimed that the whole Soviet people were unanimous in their support for the vozhd’ and his policies, an image reinforced by mass meetings and parades. This representation of unity reached its apogee in November 1937, when Molotov spoke of the “unity of the Soviet people embodied in the vozhd’, comrade Stalin”. The central question addressed by the thesis was provoked by the apparent disparity between on the one side, this official imagery and, on the other, the everyday life of most ordinary people, one of poverty and, to a certain extent, of oppression.

Publications:

Categories
History

Susan Carruthers: ‘Propaganda, Publicity and Political Violent: The Presentation of Terrorism in Britain, 1944-60’

Carruthers, S.L., ‘Propaganda, publicity and political violence: the presentation of terrorism in Britain, 1944-60’
Ph.D completed 1994. Leeds University

Abstract: Through a series of case studies, this thesis examines British attitudes to `terrorism’ as practised during various post-war colonial insurgencies. What did British governments and colonial officials understand by this term, as applied to the Jewish insurgents in Palestine at the end of the Mandate, the Malayan Communists, Mau Mau, and EOKA in Cyprus? The thesis focuses particularly on the way in which propaganda has been seen as a crucial component of the terrorist strategy. Consequently, in the attempt to deny insurgents publicity, and to mediate the perception of politically motivated violence held by various domestic and international audiences, British governments have used a wide variety of propaganda and news-management techniques. The thesis thus assesses the role of government propaganda in counter-insurgency. While some attention is paid to the employment of propaganda within the affected colonies themselves (as part of the `hearts and minds’ strategy), the focus is largely on government attempts to influence wider international audiences and, especially, domestic public opinion in Britain. The need to maintain public support at home for campaigns fought against `terrorism’ in the colonies has been a neglected aspect of most writings on counter-insurgency. However, a detailed examination of the files of the Colonial Office and Foreign Office information departments reveals that in each of the selected case studies, particular attention was paid to keeping domestic opinion `on side’. Not only have various Whitehall departments and the Central Office of Information produced official publicity material on these insurgencies, but the Foreign Office’s anti-communist Information Research Department has disseminated more covert material through the Trade Union movement and other channels. In addition, successive governments have sought to influence the press, newsreel and television coverage of events in the disputed territories.

Published Works:

Categories
History

James Chapman ‘ Official British Film Propaganda during the Second World War

Chapman, J., ‘Official British Film Propaganda during the Second World War’
PhD Thesis completed, 1995. Lancaster University

The Ministry of Information was set up at the outbreak of war in September 1939 to co-ordinate all aspects of propaganda and information for the British Government. Its Films Divison was responsible for the formulation of official film propaganda policy and the production of official films.

Both the M.O.I. and its films division were handicapped initially by the failure to make adequate plans for propaganda machinery before the war, by an often inappropriate choice of key personnel, and by a lack of co-ordination with other government departments. They were also beset by numerous administration reoganisations and changes of personnel during the first year of the war which caused a great amount of institutional instability.

Abstract: The Ministry of Information was set up at the outbreak of war in September 1939 to co-ordinate all aspects of propaganda and information for the British Government. Its Films Division was responsible for the formulation of official film propaganda policy and for the production of official films. Both the M.O.I. and its Films Division were handicapped initially by the failure to make adequate plans for the propaganda machinery before the war, by an often inappropriate choice of key personnel, and by a lack of co-ordination with other government departments. They were also beset by numerous administrative reorganisations and changes of personnel during the first year of the war which caused a great amount of institutional instability. The Films Division at first attached the most importance to the commercial film industry for propaganda purposes, though even so it struggled to find a role for feature films and at first it merely responded to the initiatives of commercial producers without laying down any policy guidelines itself. The Films Division was soon attracting much hostile criticism, both from the film trade press and also from members of the documentary movement who felt that they had been excluded from the film propaganda effort. The trade interests on the one hand and the documentarists on the other represented the opposite poles of the film industry with which the M.O.I. had to work. After the upheavals of 1940, both the M.O.I. and its Films Division became more settled and stable. A policy for film propaganda was developed which defined a role for both commercial feature films and documentary films. The feature film was used for general, indirect and long-term propaganda. After its experiment in partly financing the production of a feature film, 49th Parallel, the Films Division instead opted for a policy of informal co-operation with commercial producers through various channels to ensure that feature film propaganda worked within certain general guidelines.

Chapman now works for the Open University, and has converted his PhD thesis into a book.

Published Works:

Categories
History

Timothy Boon: ‘Film and Contestation of Public Health in Interwar Britain’

Boon, T., ‘Film and contestation of public health in interwar Britain’
PhD Thesis completed, 1999. Wellcome Institute

Abstract: This is the first study to analyse and list the approximately 350 health films distributed in Britain in the interwar period. It provides a social-historical explanation for their existence, and grounds its account in the history of public health and the highly associative culture of the period. The first part establishes the context within which they were produced: Chapter one introduces the notion of the contestation of public health, first demonstrating the widespread agreement about the importance of public education in health. The main players are then introduced: the local authorities, the voluntary associations, and the Ministry of Health. Chapter two proposes that the health education policy established by the new Ministry of Health in 1920 was created and sustained in the context of a mixed public and private model of health care. Within this, first voluntary associations, and later organised Medical Officers of Health, contested the sanction of responsibility for health education in general (as opposed to that on single disease categories). Part two devotes a chapter each to the film making activities of voluntary associations, local authorities and documentarists. The style of films produced is, in each case, explored in the context of the cultures of the different organisations involved. Voluntary associations tended to prefer ‘moral tales’, fiction films with a health message, whilst local authorities mostly subscribed to a type of naive realism. Documentarists introduced a new type of realist cinematic literacy deriving from the Russian montage tradition. The final chapter returns to the policy issues introduced in part one, and explores changes in policy at the Ministry of Health which led to an increased concern with film making. The study concludes with a detailed discussion of the Ministry’s 1939 documentary film, Health for the Nation, the culmination of many long term trends.

Published Works:

Health Matters: Modern Medicine and the Search for Better Health, (London: Science Museum, 1994) (co-editor with Lawrence, G.)

Categories
History

Philip M. Taylor: ‘The Projection of Britain: British Overseas Publicity and Propaganda, 1913-1939, with particular reference to the work of the news department of the Foreign Office’

Taylor, P.M., ‘The projection of Britain: British overseas publicity and propaganda, 1914-1939, with particular reference to the work of the news department of the Foreign Office.’
PhD, completed 1978, Leeds University

No abstract

Published Works: