“Freedom” of the Press: British Propaganda and Systems of Self-Censorship in the First World War

During the First World War the British Parliament developed a propaganda apparatus which relied heavily on the burgeoning press industry, centralized under the ownership of a small number of wealthy men, to control the public narrative surrounding the war. This essay will contextualize the foundation of the state-press partnership and the role the press played in the control of public opinion during the war. Additionally, using two specific elements of Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model, it will show that the complacency of the press in producing and reproducing state propaganda during World War I was a result of self-censorship systems fundamentally built into the news media industry.