McLaine, I. Ministry of Morale: Home Front Morale and the Ministry of Information in World War Two London: George Allen & Unwin, 1979

A key work for this project which fully considers the administrative history of the Ministry of Information, the lead government department for propaganda. He argues that for two years, the measures taken by government propagandists were:

• Unnecessary and inept
• Based on misunderstanding and distrust of the British public
• Products of the class and background of the propagandists themselves.
• He feels that after two years:
• The Germans were still characterised as irretrievably wicked.
• Efforts were made to separate Communism from the ‘Russian’ (not Soviet) war effort.
• Propaganda was intermittently prompted by doubts about people’s martial stamina and devotion to Parliamentary democracy.

McLaine felt that the achievements of the Ministry of Information were that:

• The MOI realised importance of full and honest news as a factor
• They recognised that in the fight against totalitarianism, it was important not to disregard one of its main weapons, although within a democratic context.
• With benefit of Home Intelligence, the MOI came to regard the British people as sensible and tough, and so entitled to be taken into the government’s confidence

See if you can get hold of a copy on Amazon.}

Chapman, J. The British at War: Cinema, State and Propaganda, 1939-1945 London: I.B. Tauris, 1997

This work is converted from Chapman’s PhD, and is described as a “comprehensive history of the role, nature and organisation of film propaganda in Britain during the Second World War.” Chapman challenges the received wisdom that WW2 propaganda was shambolic and disorganised.

He shows how film propaganda was more successful than alleged. He examines the roles of both commercial film industry and government film units; through an analysis of government and trade sources he explores the relationship between the Ministry of Information & sectors of the film industry. He discusses the role of the cinema as a vehicle for propaganda – set within the context of a country at war. He identifies themes and images through the analysis of key films, whilst exploring their competing entertainment and propaganda values.

Chapman investigated a wide range of different sources including government records, the trade press, newspaper reviews, Mass-Observation surveys & some private letters, memoranda and committee minutes to produce a thorough, well-written, analytical work.

Buy from Amazon.

Balfour, Michael Propaganda in War 1939-1945, Organisations, Policies and Publics in Britain and Germany London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979

Balfour worked for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War, from March 1939 to March 1942, he was Temporary Principal in General Division of MOI, which gave him a good view of the Home Front. From April 1942 until the end of the war he was Assistant Director of Intelligence in Political Warfare Executive/ Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF, which gave him a good view of enemy front.

This was the first book to deal with both Britain and Germany, including what each government said to its own, and to each others public. He believed that only by doing this could we understand the whole picture, as each aspect sheds light on the others.

The scope of the book was confined to Britain and Germany unless outside events particularly impinged, concentrated upon the civilian front. It was not intended to be comprehensive, but picked important and interesting aspects. Balfour did not refer back to many documents but worked from ‘acknowledged authorities’, using footnotes to give pointers to other sources of interest.

The balance of the book was inevitably affected as he was better informed about Germany than Britain, due to the fact that there were more sources available. However, he felt that the purpose of the book was not only to describe events 1918-1945, but to shed some light as to nature of propaganda. Balfour tried to answer the following questions in the book:

• What is the purpose of propaganda?
• Does propaganda essentially involve misrepresentation?
• If not, what is the difference between it and persuasion?
• Is one automatically a propagandist if one makes predictions that do not come true?
• Can ‘news’ be kept completely separate from ‘views’?
• How does a publicist know whether he is reporting the truth (particularly in wartime)?
• Is the use of the mass media essential to propaganda?

Try and find on Amazon, although the title is out of print.

See a book review from a reader in Ottawa (PDF).

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:

• The British at War: Cinema, State and Propaganda, 1939-1945 (London: IB Tauris, 1998).
• Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films (London: I B Tauris, 1999)
• Windows on the Sixties: Exploring Key Texts of Media and Culture , 2000 (co-editor with Arthur Marwick and Tony Aldgate)
• Saints and Avengers: British Adventure Series of the 1960s (I B Tauris, London, 2002)
• Cinemas of the World: : Film and Society in the Twentieth Century (Reaktion, 2003)

The Institute of Historical Research

“The Institute of Historical Research is part of the University of London’s School of Advanced Study. Situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, close to the British Library and other centres of specialist research, it is an important resource and meeting place for scholars from all over the world. It contains an open-access library and a common room, publishes works of reference, administers a number of research projects and runs courses and conferences. It offers research fellowships to students nearing the completion of their doctorates, and administers other awards.”

Founded in 1921 by A. F. Pollard, the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) is an important resource and meeting place for researchers from all over the world. Based at the University of London, the IHR offers:

• IHR library – an outstanding open-access library
• conferences and seminars that are open to the public
• postgraduate degrees and research training
• The History Lab, a hub for postgraduate students
• resources for historical research in both digital format and print
• publications – including the Institute’s journal Historical Research”
  

The IHR is based in Senate House, where the Ministry of Information was located during the war – adds a special piquancy every time I enter!

COI: Communications and behaviour change

Introduction
Human behaviour is a very complex area. This document draws on key sources from the disciplines of social psychology, economics and behavioural economics (where the first two disciplines overlap). We have sought to distil this information into some key factors that are important to consider for anyone developing communications that seek to influence behaviour, and to develop a framework for applying these factors to the development of a communications strategy.

In this document

What influences people’s behaviour?

This section outlines some of the key factors that influence behaviour. It draws on a range of social psychological theories and includes three examples of behavioural models. The section also gives an overview of the key principles of behavioural economics and of the best known theories of change. Case studies provide a practical illustration of how models and theories have been used to inform government communications.

Embedding behavioural theory

A five-step framework shows how, by increasing our understanding of behaviour, behavioural theory can help to define the role for communications and build a communications model. The Department of Health’s Tobacco Control campaign is used to show how each step of the process might work in practice. The section concludes with a summary of the steps and a series of questions designed to stimulate thinking at each stage.

Conclusions and future implications

This section lists the main conclusions emerging from the report, then goes on to consider some of the key implications for communicators.

Next steps

Finally, this section suggests some areas for future discussion aimed at embedding behaviour change theory in communications development.

Download

• Communications and behaviour change (PDF 2.3MB)

For further information contact behaviourchange@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Taken from: COI Website. As my thesis focused upon the posters produced by the Ministry of Information in the Second World War, and the MOI became the COI, I am really interested in this report, particularly as this report focuses upon behavioural change, which was one of the indicators I was looking for within my thesis, although I was not using specific behavioural theories, that was a line I’ve become interested in developing, as I am really interested in a longitudinal study of government publicity, with a particular interest in health campaigns – and have been chatting to Beyond Chocolate about some of the research they have done.

See press release if interested in getting involved.

The Formation of the Ministry of Information (PhD Extract)

Extract from PhD thesis. © Rebecca Lewis, 2004 (Extracted from the 3rd Chapter). Please note that this information is COPYRIGHTED, so please reference this URL, or the thesis itself.

3: Commissioning, Design & Distribution, with a particular focus on the MOI and the first posters produced

This chapter focuses on the production and distribution of government publicity in the Second World War. The Ministry of Information (MOI) was expected to be the central governmental publicity machine, an institution that sought to regulate its population through discourse. In this chapter we briefly consider its formation and role, including how it drew on previous experience, and gained the power to influence British propaganda, but concentrate more explicitly on the publicity producing divisions. Within this chapter, we reflect upon how the MOI looked to promote self-regulation amongst British subjects, providing them with information, in order to produce what Foucault would term ‘docile’, ‘useful’, ‘functional’ and ‘productive’ bodies contributing to the British war effort. Having seen how the MOI generally worked, and the place of the poster division within that, we will move on to consider how the division commissioned, produced, distributed and displayed posters throughout the war, focusing particularly on the posters produced in the first few weeks of the war.

70 Years Since the Outbreak of the Second World War

So, here we are, September 3rd, 2009, 70 years after the Second World War was officially declared…  Some of the stories that have caught my attention:

• Guardian: Why did the Second World War begin?
• Terry Teachout: The War That Never Ends
• Poland/UK 70th Anniversary Ceremony
• The Daily Mirror looks back to its front cover in 1939, and compares the fight to the current one in Afghanistan.
• History Today collects some memories, click for all posts related to the Second World War.
• Memories rescued from the tip in Kent.
• Second World War just not cricket for the British (Financial Times)
• Oxford Mail: Looking Back on the Second World War.
• Canadian Survey: memories of World War II
• World War II in the Guardian series/logo.
• Propaganda Posters from Powys during the Second World War. (I’m sure these images are the ones from the free copies circulated by the Telegraph or some such in the 1970s!)
• Memories of Second World War put on Houghton Heritage website.

And the Ministry of Information was Formed, with Lord Macmillan the First Minister of Information appointed on 4th September 2009:

Extract from PhD thesis. © Rebecca Lewis, 2004 (The 3rd chapter goes into far more detail) Please note that this information is COPYRIGHTED, so please reference this URL, or the thesis itself.

Edwin J Embleton (b.1907-d.2000)

Edwin J Embleton was born in Hornsey, London, studied at Hornsey Art School and did ‘hound work’ at a studio off the Grays Inn Road. In 1924 he started work at Odhams Press as a layout and lettering artist at £2.00 per week. He later became Studio Manager for Odhams Press. Embleton, although a commercial and graphic designer, has not been personally identified on any wartime posters, but, along with three other staff from Odhams, was seconded to the MOI at the outbreak of the Second World War.As Art Director and Studio Manager, Embleton employed up to seventy members of staff by the end of the war, including ‘painters, designers, illustrators, visualisers, layout artists, typographers, retouchers, letterers and calligraphers, cartographers, pictorial statistics’, and cartoonists. This effectively created ‘an advertising agency within the publication division of the Ministry of Information’. Embleton’s task was to produce all required official government literature, and he was in charge of the design, poster and visualising group for both the general and overseas production divisions. Embleton was responsible for preparing, overseeing and following the projects through to completion, and was given a free hand to commission designs from whichever artists and designers he chose. Embleton returned to Odhams Press after peace was declared in 1945.

Winston Churchill wrote a special letter of thanks through the Minister of Information for a ‘special job of work’ and Embleton was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for his service to the war effort. Various items from his collection of MOI printed material are held at the National Art Library (NAL), and the Imperial War Museum (IWM) holds three scrapbooks of press clippings related to the MOI, which Embleton kept throughout the war. In September 1989, Embleton’s collection of Second World War posters was put up for auction by Onslow’s, specialist auctioneers.

Information collated from: ‘Edwin J Embleton 1907- Great Britain, Ministry of Information’, AAD/1996/4 – Archive of Art & Design. Entry in Public Access Catalogue, National Art Library, V&A; National Art Library, ‘AAD Holdings’, http://www.nal.vam.ac.uk/aad/aadalpha.html, accessed August 28 2003; Onslow’s Auction Catalogue, ‘War Posters: Including the Great War and E J Embleton Collection of Second World War Posters’, September 14 1989 (A copy of the catalogue for this exhibition is held at the Imperial War Museum); Questionnaire submitted by Royall, K. to Embleton, E., Royall, K., ‘Posters of the Second World War: The Fourth Arm of British Defence’, Unpublished M.A., University of Westminster, 1991, p.123 [Royall is Graduate Officer at the V&A.]

See original post, and this was the answer to the competition last month! You can now visit the Embleton Archives at the University of Brighton, which holds a lot of Ministry of Information material, not as much as the Imperial War Museum or National Archives (yes, I wrote that page too!), but I found them very helpful in accessing a number of design texts (living nearby helped!).

Second World War posters continue to fascinate many!

The National Archives: The Art of War
 In 2005, whilst The National Archives were looking for artist biography material, they came across my website www.ww2poster.co.uk, read about my PhD thesis, and decided they needed my expertise. I was contracted in as an editorial consultant. It was a great opportunity to go behind the scenes at the National Archives (where “all” (well, about 3% per year) of government records are housed at Kew. I’d already spent weeks at the National Archives (along with weeks at Colindale, the Imperial War Museum and Mass-Observation, with shorter stints at other archives), but continued with some further research, and then wrote the following content for the site:

• About 95% of the captions, and the group descriptions, for theillustrations and propaganda sections
• The information on INF 3 and the Ministry of Information
• Much of the information on artists was taken from my website, plus I did further research, and wrote some of the entries.

Saatchi and Saatchi
Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi worldwide has picked up on the Keep Calm and Carry On poster (and I am pleased to say, has referenced my work, as did Barter Books in the first instance!)… it is an inspiring poster, particularly for 2009, even if it never came into play during the war years!

Keep Calm-o-Matic
Make your own version of the slogan using an online generator! No wonder there’s so many different versions out there… get parody-ing!  Here’s what I generated!