The Role Of Images In World War One

World War One was about power, the power to devise war and to destroy lives. The underpinning of images discursively shows the prioritised geographical knowledges. By exploring these images it shows a specific narrative about the medium that is being produced. Through the use of images, films and poems that notion of geographical knowledges are brought to a greater understanding. The notions of communication through a medium were widely prioritised, information about war was comfortable for the people at home. The reality wasn’t explored through the medium, it wasn’t until later that the horrors of war were explored. The horrors of war were brought to the knowledge of the people through poems about war. Soldiers wrote about their experience
Images depict the perfect war in the eyes of the people, they create a sense of heroism, patriotism and sacrifice. Images that deal with the notions of war tend to constitute a genre, that borrow narratives from other images (Dittmar & Michaud , 1990). Many images during World War One show a sense of duty ‘be a real man and come fight’. A sense of loyalty, imperialism and nationalism was felt through these images and slogans. War lead to conflicts of soldiers due to the fact that war was perceived as romantic and patriotic. News of the World sold two million copies on July 2nd 1916 due to the information that it gave within it. It is a political economy, News of the World created a medium that was comfortable for the people to hear and see. Media in itself demonstrated the power of propaganda in the mobilisation of the war. Images that soured through the newspapers during this time showed evidence of life not death. These images underpinned a false reality, the knowledge that was given to the world was a false representation of war. The film ‘The battle of the Somme’ also exerts the use of selective imaginative geographies. The music, actors and clothing along with a considerable amount of attributes were selective. This film was also comfortable for people to watch because it too didn’t show the reality of
The establishment of new hero’s provides inspiration to a nation because of their superior qualities. World War One became a significant tool of appeasement amidst Ireland’s Catholics and Protestant communities. In the Free State the linguistic endowment of Sinn Féin made it impossible to divide the issues of personal suffering and political belief, all servicemen dead and the living being confounded by the flag beneath which they had served (Fitzpatrick, 2001). The prolonged hostility of political parties to ex-service men made all governments cagey of publicly advocating the commemoration of Irish involvement in the war. World War One was of a significant narrative, there wasn’t a fragment of World War One represented nor performed in a public space. These figures and the notions of war were completely alien to the people at home. All political groups drew their legitimacy from the understanding of the Irish past, all commemoration were dishonoured by politics and potentially counter-productive (Fitzpatrick, 2001). The iconography depends on a mix of religious form and a strong aspect of Celtic imagery, all of which consolidates the ‘Irishness’ of those being commemorated (Bhreathnach-Lynch ,