DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/FBNN-BC25
Defense Date
2007
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
History
First Advisor
Dr. Ted Tunnell
Abstract
This thesis describes and analyses how the Richmond press operated as a propaganda machine during the final year of the Civil War. It argues that the newspapers of the Confederate capital regularly exploited the propaganda value of the news they reported, employing methods including distortion of facts and libelous personal attacks. They displayed a seemingly total disregard for veracity in their zeal to convince their readership that the cause was not lost, and created a false picture of the real situation to a population which was war-weary and desperate for reassurance that victory was still possible. Defeats were minimized and even the tiniest victory in the most insignificant skirmish was magnified. When the Northern army began its strategy of hard war, the Richmond press seized on that to help create a demonized portrait of the Yankee and the North.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
June 2008