The Negative Roles Of Superman And Captain America During World War II

Ever since its birth as a country in 1776, the United States of America has been a country surrounded by a certain aura that is not shared by other countries throughout the world. The country is one that was born out of a struggle and revolution, which has helped shape the character of its citizens and its national identity. Throughout the various wars the country has fought, such as the war of 1812, both World Wars, and the Vietnam War, propaganda has played an important role in influencing the people of America. The government of the United States has effectively used propaganda over the centuries to generate funds for war or relief efforts, save resources for war efforts, to get out and work or to possibly sway the minds of its citizens towards particular political ideals. Propaganda throughout the history of the United States, and throughout the world, have had various themes such as slandering an enemy as seen in anti-German, Italian, and Japanese propaganda in World War 2, or the opposite when trying to gain support for an ally. The main purpose of propaganda throughout history has been to persuade people to buy into or follow a set of ideals set out by whoever created the propaganda. Propaganda has played a large part in shaping the understanding of the United States by causing its citizens to buy into the beliefs of the government, which is a large reason why the country was able to become the great nation that it is today.

There were many tactics used by the United States in order to unify citizens because the government felt as if Americans didn’t know who the real villain was. The government thought it was necessary to get everyone on America’s side in order to, “convince men to go to war with the risk of sacrificing their life to kill others.” (From Lecture) In order to accomplish this, the U.S created the Committee on Public Information otherwise known as CPI that was headed by Herbert Hoover. Their task was to oversee all war propaganda and ensure that it met their standards. One way the CPI tried to persuade Americans included creating movies that informed Americans about how Germans or “Huns” were the ones that needed to be eradicated. Another form of

American propaganda during WWI was used to spread ideas and information for the purpose of helping the American cause, specifically through, songs, posters, pamphlets and leaflets. America joined the Allies forces in 1917 in Europe to fight against the Central Powers. The American government needed something to spark the peoples' interest in the war. The most effective tool the government found and used was propaganda. The American government used propaganda to reach out to the people. The government wanted to reach people of all ages. Similarly, Germany fought back with her own propaganda, by purposely dropping leaflets and pamphlets on the ground to try and convince American soldiers, especially blacks, to join their side. In my opinion

Even after war, groups will always produce media with the intent of influencing the public. “Meet King Joe,” for example, is a post World War II film that follows Joe on an educational journey where he learns about how the American economy works to make his life better. The other post World War II film to be analyzed, “Don’t Be a Sucker,” follows Mike as a wise stranger tells him about how, as Americans, we should all be tolerant of each others differences lest we become like Nazi Germany. Both of these films utilize Plain Folks appeals and other techniques in an effort to influence public opinion; but one is black, deceptive, and unethical propaganda while the other may be closer to a rational attempt at persuasion than a piece of propaganda.

During WWII, media was a huge part in trying to rally up the people to help in war efforts. . Great Britain was in major need and were willing to do anything.

In the epilogue “Pop Culture in a Post-9/11 World” of his monograph With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture since 1830, Leroy Ashby analyses America’s post-9/11 popular culture especially with a focus on advertisements and TV shows and concludes that a change in society’s demand for entertainment and amusement did not take place as expected directly after the terror attacks. First visible responses of popular culture on the attacks were the flag as symbol and the cancelling of some movies and series. Furthermore, togetherness and remembering, often reflected by family series, became more important. However, as Ashby calls it “market patriotism” (496) emerged as a way to use the war on

News media is supposed to serve the purpose of informing their listeners of current and upcoming events that affect the audience. Very few viewers actually take into account how valid these news reports actually are. More or less, the news is accept. The same could be said about any news releases on war. However, in the documentary, “War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” the narrator speaks to the audience about how the media such as news reporters and presidential speeches influenced Americans to become advocates for the war. Presidents play a large role in propaganda because they showed means of justification for their immoral military actions during these wars. The film discuss several wars in which America contributed in unethical acts.

American media can be said to have reached its peak during WWI due to the movies based off the battles and suffering happening in Europe. As new methods of film came out and more people went to see them the shock factor ingrained itself in the minds of many. Thus, an opportunity for war propaganda arose and films shaped the popular public opinion on the war. The American film industry greatly influenced the American view of the war, as it gave people a visual of the occurrences overseas;consequently, this also allowed stereotypes and negative thoughts to be formed about the enemy, which influenced active participation in the war.

As already mentioned, the United States readily took part in the propaganda parley of World War II. The threat of subversive Nazi propaganda on U.S. soil caused private citizens to use their contacts to pressure the government into counteracting the “attack on democracy” (Laurie 30-32). This spurred the creation of government organizations such as the U.S. Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The role of these organizations was to oversee the propaganda released on behalf of the government (Laurie 45). The military naturally became involved in the creation and implementation of propaganda films to promote anti-Nazi feelings across a nation immersed

The Vietnam was a revolutionary event in the history of the media’s role in war, since it was the first time where the media was allowed to show the American citizens the reality of foreign wars. With the invention and rapidly gaining popularity of the television set at the end of World War II; by 1964, more than half of Americans “got most of their news” from TV, meaning that people were able to in some way become part of the terrible experiences of the soldiers in Vietnam were living. The mass media radically changed the perception and war, showing to what great extent the forms of communication altered ideals.

During World War II, the entertainment industry effectively helped produce a national consensus celebrating the American way of life. Consequently, this patriotism led America’s unity to defend their country against Germany, Italy, Japan, and later the Soviet Union’s communism. Pop culture provided many opportunities of amusement and influenced Americans’ viewpoint of themselves and their country.

What was some of your favorite superheroes when you was growing up? My favorite was Batman, Spiderman, Superman, X-Men, Iron-Man, and GI Joe. Superheroes play a huge roles in our lives. You can’t go nowhere without hearing, or seeing them. We first seen these heroes in comics, they have been around for a long time, and still going. They’re in our comic/mangas, movies, T.V, even in our music.

The American media is private business. Most make their profits by selling their audiences advertisements, not news coverage. Because of this structure, the media tends to favor corporate interests such as advertising agencies and “big business”. There is also new “cross-ownership”. The leaders of media corporations and the defense industry are the same, which leads to supporting war. There is an inherent conservative bias in the American media system which is based on the economic structure of mass media in the United States.

“A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth” – Joseph Goebbels, German Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. This is the exact words of Nazis most famous propagandist in using media as a mass weapon of propaganda and mind control. Could you imagine Germany in 1930s, without Television channel, without the Internet, without every mobile device in your palm, what channel of information will you get? Of course, newspapers, flies, images, celebrities were used as tools for propaganda purposes, designed to provoke a reaction, and ultimately, a form of control over their citizen. Nowadays, with all the advanced of technologies, information can reach everyone in every corner of the Earth, the message is delivered in the subtlest ways, without people’s conscious, has shaped everyone’s decision, or at least shape their behavior toward the decision that the orchestrator want the audience to perceive. With the booming of internet, information sharing seamlessly, we must ask ourselves, the role of media in conveying, shaping the society that we are living in. Let look at few examples of U.S propaganda machine, and later, the particular case of fish sauce in Viet Nam back in October 2016.

In history various societies have had hero’s that have been created or were real dating back to Greek hero’s like Hercules and the medieval hero’s like King Arthur; during the final years of The Great Depression World War II was starting across the ocean in Europe. Out of this dark time came the two greatest heroes of all time; Batman and Superman. Both sixty plus years in print, have acquired a massive fan base. The fan base of the two most major popular of comics have been known to attack one another with claims on who is superior or who is the most interesting. If you had to choose a side which hero would you go with? With all the fan wars the origins of the characters, their secret identities, and the style of justice they deliver have been the basis of determining who is truly the best comic book character. To begin with the origin of each character is significant. Starting with Superman also known as Clark Kent his origin has had many changes since his creation. Essentially his various origin stories all have Superman coming from his home planet of Krypton in a rocket and narrowly escaping the apocalypse that shattered his world; he is sent to the planet Earth where is found by his adopting mother and father Martha Kent and Jonathan Kent. Eventually he leaves Smallville to go to metropolis where he discovers persona Superman where he defends the world from villains like Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Bizzarro and multiple others. Batman, on the other hand has a simple contrast