How media make society defensive: Ten steps towards “war readiness”

Truth is the first casualty of war, it is often said in anti-war circles. This observation is often attributed to the British politician, publicist, and pacifist Arthur Ponsonby (1871–1946). In his book "Falsehood in Wartime" (1928), he examined methods of war propaganda during the First World War. There he finds the famous line: "When war is declared, truth is the first casualty." But first, the USA, as the world's number one military power, has long since stopped declaring wars. And second, of course, the first and last victims of the vast majority of wars are ordinary people on both sides of the respective front lines, whether fighting soldiers or innocent civilians.

Nevertheless, Lord Ponsonby's idealistic dictum remains important if we want to understand the extent to which the media are making societies like West Germany "ready for war" here and now. "Truth" proves to be a flexible concept there, too. Media mobilizations toward "readiness for war" typically begin long before hostilities begin. In order to understand the war propaganda of all potentially involved in the competition between states and alliances, the Belgian historian Anne Morelli condensed and updated Ponsonby's 20 propaganda aspects from 1928 into her ten "Principles of War Propaganda" in 2001, using media criticism. Morelli states that she does not want to side with any one state/warring party, nor to find out "who is lying and who is telling the truth, who believes what they say and who doesn't." She simply wants to illustrate "the principles of propaganda" on all sides of the conflict.