World War II Propaganda?

Question:I have to do a research paper, but I'm having a little trouble narrowing it down.

I'm thinking of writing about WWII Propaganda, but I can't decide to do Nazi propaganda or American propaganda; I'd like to do the one that is most interesting and has lots of information.

Also, would it be possible to compare the two? I think it would be interesting, but I'm not sure how that would work out. :P

Any advice would be really great! Thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I have to do a research paper, but I'm having a little trouble narrowing it down.

I'm thinking of writing about WWII Propaganda, but I can't decide to do Nazi propaganda or American propaganda; I'd like to do the one that is most interesting and has lots of information.

Also, would it be possible to compare the two? I think it would be interesting, but I'm not sure how that would work out. :P

Any advice would be really great! Thanks.

Yes, it would be possible to compare the two, and quite intresting. This option would actually allow you to split your research paper into three parts. One part you focus on Nazi propaganda, one part you focus on American propoganda, then in the third part you do a comparison. Basically the first two parts you lay the ground work for the third, giving the reader an understanding of Nazi and American propaganda. Let them start to compare and contrast the two based on what they have read so far. Then they get to the actual comparison, finding maybe their conclusions were right or maybe they missed something.

A very ease comparison is that both forms of propaganda were meant to show their sides superiority and both forms wanted their people to believe that those they were fighting against were inferior. The contrast may have been the way they went about doing so. It's up to you to really bring this out for the reader.

You would have enough info to do both sides, but I would personally pick the Nazis. It would be more interesting to understand the evolution of the Nazi propaganda as the war progressed.

It should be very easy to compare them. American anti-German propaganda is very well documented as is the Nazi anti-American propaganda.

It would absolutely be possible to compare the two, American and Nazi... that would be a very interesting read, your teacher would be impressed.

I'd personally do Nazi propaganda against the "inferior races" if it were up to me. There is probably slightly less info... although still alot about it out there.

For example I know there was a poster on how to tell a Jewish person from an Aryan based on facial features. (Funny thing is, I examined it with my class and we figured out Hitler would be considered Jewish based on what the poster considers a "jewish facial feature")

Another topic out there with tons of famous propaganda are the Frank Capra films. Anti-Japanese, Pro Chinese. interesting.

Also possible children's cartoons. Go to youtube and try to find "Education for Death," which is a Disney Anti-Nazi propaganda cartoon. Also look up "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips." A very racist bugs bunny cartoon.

Finally, there is a lot written about women going to work in factories in WW2, and a lot of propaganda to support it.

Just a few ideas, but either way I recommend watching those cartoons on youtube.

In your work on propaganda, you might want to delve into the fact that the Allies had broken the codes of the Nazis and were feeding them misinformation just about all through the war. We also had better information about who had, or had not been killed, which played a major role in German morale, and trust of their government. The German spies in Britain had been found early in the war and had been told, basically, work for us, or die. Generally they turned on Germany and were a major source of misinformation to Germany, who swallowed the information "hook, line, and sinker". (this means, that the information was believed as being true, when in fact it was not) One quick side note, Ian Fleming was a British officer during WW2. He had a plan 1 time for a James Bond style plot for an action against the Germans, but it was not used.