War of the words : a study of pro-British propaganda during the First World War and its implementation in Maltese newspapers

Abstract

The growth of industrialization and the enfranchisement of mass populations during the First World War led elites to become reliant on public consent to ensure support for the war effort. This dissertation discusses the historical legacy of the war, particularly in view of Malta's role as a British colony. A review of extant literature enables conceptualization of propaganda and provides insight into its wartime value, most notably with regards to the relationship between the colonizer and the colony. Extensive contextualization reveals the hegemonic impact of the colonizer through the embedding of calculated normative messages in the colony media channels. Thereafter international relations theory and communication theory are applied to war propaganda to shed light upon mass audience manipulation and the birth of crowd psychology. Three local Maltese newspapers, each of which caters to a niche audience, are then taken as case studies. Qualitative discourse analysis is applied to identify whether British propagandist techniques were prevalent in the published text and the intentions of the principal framing themes and tactics is discussed. There have been no previous studies on this particular subject and hence this dissertation is the first to query whether pro-British propaganda was implemented in Maltese newspapers during the Great War. Moreover, with Malta serving as a British fortress colony and subsequent full employment in the hospitals and Dockyard it is asked if it was even necessary for the British to implement said propaganda. The analysis reveals a disparity in the reporting of local and international affairs: a united front is presented abroad against the peer competitor Germany, whilst domestically internal criticism is targeted at the Government over scarcity of resources, deteriorating sanitation and the intrinsic desire for Maltese representation. The cause of the pejorative connotations of propaganda is ascertained, and the study concludes with suggestions for further study.