Propaganda
During both world war one and two, propaganda was an important recruitment tool for the government. In world war one specifically the propaganda was mainly designed to evoke a sense of fear of the Germans and a feeling of pride and responsiblity for the British empire we are part of. Most of this propaganda was communicated with posters. The posters seem to have been very good at convincing young people that war is an adventure and that if we don't help stop the Germans they're coming to us. As if the government weren't already going crazy with propaganda they would also hand out white feathers to those men who did not join in the war effort. These feathers symbolised cowardice and shamed all the people who received them. The least effective techniques were the ones which tried to convince Australians that Germany is coming south if we don't help as Germany are so far away that no one felt like we were in danger.
In world war two however scare tactics became much more relevant as we were at war with japan, our rather close neighbor. This meant the "they're coming south campaign" became a lot scarier. It was apparently s scary in fact that conscription passed. In world war two propaganda would usually consist of radio, posters and newspapers which mostly talked the nurses. The story of the nurses is that there was a hospital boat off the coast of Brisbane which bore an easily seeable red cross which was lit up. the cross and colour of the boat was meant to show that the hospital boat was non combatant. this boat was sunk by a Japanese submarine. This incident made it very easy for propaganda to demonise the Japanese and make more Australians want to go to war to avenge the nurses.
In world war two however scare tactics became much more relevant as we were at war with japan, our rather close neighbor. This meant the "they're coming south campaign" became a lot scarier. It was apparently s scary in fact that conscription passed. In world war two propaganda would usually consist of radio, posters and newspapers which mostly talked the nurses. The story of the nurses is that there was a hospital boat off the coast of Brisbane which bore an easily seeable red cross which was lit up. the cross and colour of the boat was meant to show that the hospital boat was non combatant. this boat was sunk by a Japanese submarine. This incident made it very easy for propaganda to demonise the Japanese and make more Australians want to go to war to avenge the nurses.
Censorship
With a lot of expansion of government power 1914 censorship became a frequently used during world war one. Censorship is an extremely powerful tool because it can allow a government to control the flow of information which in turn can control what the public thinks. Censorship allowed the government to control information from newspapers and even soldiers letters to home. Most of the censorship the government used was based around keeping the publics morale to an acceptable standard. This would have been impossible without censorship as news of Gallipoli coming all the time would absolutely destroy morale and send the country into a panic.
At the beginning of world war two the Australian government allowed themselves even more power to censor. This was definately necessary as Australia was actually getting bombed by Japanese so it was much harder to censor out as a lot of morale ruining incidents occurred in Australia. A good example of this is when Darwin was bombed by the Japanese. Despite the fact that it happened in australia and killed around ten people the government still managed to play it down using censorship. Another example of this was the battle of Brisbane which was a brawl between American and Australian soldiers. The event killed one and wounded another but was completely censored to make sure the relations between America and Australia stayed intact. Although censorship is essentially lying massively to a whole country I belive without it Australia would have been in big trouble.
At the beginning of world war two the Australian government allowed themselves even more power to censor. This was definately necessary as Australia was actually getting bombed by Japanese so it was much harder to censor out as a lot of morale ruining incidents occurred in Australia. A good example of this is when Darwin was bombed by the Japanese. Despite the fact that it happened in australia and killed around ten people the government still managed to play it down using censorship. Another example of this was the battle of Brisbane which was a brawl between American and Australian soldiers. The event killed one and wounded another but was completely censored to make sure the relations between America and Australia stayed intact. Although censorship is essentially lying massively to a whole country I belive without it Australia would have been in big trouble.