The Advent of Radio: Creating a Mass Audience for Propaganda and Incitement 1911–1945

Radio did not figure as a major form of communications or propaganda in the First World War. Radio telegraphy had speeded communications, enabled newspapers to get news more quickly and facilitated the faster spread of information. Telegraphic messages had to be typed out and distributed. There was no human voice — delivery was still at a remove and in print — so only available to those to whom it was distributed directly and to those who could read. Propaganda so distributed could be read out at public meetings or printed in newspapers or news sheets. But it wasn’t direct communication.