From Propaganda to ‘Information’: Reforming Government Communications in Britain

Maartens, Brendan ORCID: 0000-0003-4990-4484 (2016) From Propaganda to ‘Information’: Reforming Government Communications in Britain. Contemporary British History, 30 (4). pp. 542-562.

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Abstract

Since the 1980s, several studies of post-war British propaganda have been published. While many of these have focused on developments abroad, some have explored domestic work carried out under the auspices of the Central Office of Information. Established in 1946, the Central Office of Information provided a range of services to government departments, including advertising and public opinion polling, but it was just part of a wider system of official communications that has tended to attract less attention in the historiography. Reorganised by Clement Attlee’s post-war Labour governments, this system was presented to the public as a means of disseminating impartial and apparently non-controversial ‘facts’ about government policy. Few commentators today accept that justification, but little is known about why it emerged after the Second World War or what impact it had on existing communications machinery. Taking a broad view of the subject that considers the inter-war and wartime antecedents to the post-war communications system, this paper seeks to fill in some of the gaps that have emerged in the literature. Focusing on shifts in official nomenclature and departmental practice, it explores the relationship propaganda shared to government policy and its broader legacy in the twentieth century.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Central Office of Information, Attlee governments, propaganda, public relations, advertising, information services
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	13 Aug 2019 09:50
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 00:36
DOI:	10.1080/13619462.2016.1162157
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3051156