Key themes: conflict and conflict resolution; the significance of media in society. (1g and h of the CE Programmes of Study).
Watch the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan (15), a brutal depiction of US Forces landing on Omaha beach on D-Day. Ask pupils to reflect on and discuss why people ended up in that situation. What are the causes of, or motives for, war? What were the soldiers’ reasons for being there? Were they different to the Government’s reasons for D-Day?
Use the Imperial War Museum website to research propaganda on both sides: www.iwm.org.ukeducationmediawartechniqww2.htm
How did the media try to affect people’s feelings and behaviour during the war? Why? Compare and contrast media coverage of the recent Iraq War. Was it biased? Was there any propaganda? (Find hundreds of newspaper front pages from around the world at www.newseum.orgfrontpageswariniraq.htm
Ask pupils to use the gallery at http:gallery.colofinder.netiraq-war-march-april-2003 to make their own selection of photographs and create a media-type depiction of the Iraq war.
They might also reflect on the anti-war posters featured on http:homepage.mac.comleperousPhotoAlbum1.html, many of which mimic the Second World War pro-war posters.
