War of the Waves: Radio and Resistance During World War II

Abstract

What is the role of the media in coordinating and mobilizing insurgency against a foreign military occupation? We analyze this question in the context of the Nazifascist occupation of Italy during WWII. We study the effect of BBC radio counterpropaganda (Radio Londra) on the intensity of internal resistance to the Nazi-fascist regime. Using variation in monthly sunspot activities affecting the sky-wave propagation of BBC broadcasting towards Italy, we show that BBC radio had a strong impact on political violence. We provide further evidence to prove that BBC radio played an important role in coordinating resistance activities, but had no lasting role in motivating the population against the fascist regime.

The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV

“…The evidence is similar when considering the larger bandwidths, Δ ≤ 1 and Δ ≤ 0.50 : see online Appendix FigureA5 25. The effect on M5S is unaffected when controlling for access to broadband internet, which previous research byCampante, Durante, and Sobbrio (2013) shows was positively related with support for the M5S: see TableA6 26. Online Appendix FigureA6shows the ideological stance of Forza Italia, the Democratic Party, and the M5S, as perceived by respondents of the Italian National Elections Study (described in the next section).…”

“…Although the M5S can hardly be located on the traditional right-left axis, it is generally perceived as leaning toward the left of the political spectrum; by contrast, Berlusconi always catered to centre-right voters. 26 At the same time, both parties are characterized by a distinctively populist rhetoric; indeed, they are often cited as leading examples of populist European parties (see, e.g., van Kessel 2015, Jones and Pasquino 2015, Verbeek and Zaslove 2016. A potential reconciliation of the effect on Forza Italia and M5S is, thus, that higher support for Forza Italia reflects widespread populist attitudes (as opposed to a different ideological stance) among viewers exposed earlier to entertainment TV.…”

Propaganda and Combat Motivation: Radio Broadcasts and German Soldiers’ Performance in World War II

“…16Yanagizawa-Drott 2014; Dellavigna et al 2014; Peisakhin and Rozenas 2018; Gagliarducci et al 2018.…”

The Voice of Radio in the Battle for Equal Rights: Evidence from the U.S. South

“…In post-genocide Rwanda, Blouin and Mukand (2019) instead find that exposure to the government Radio Rwanda leads to higher inter-ethnic trust and cooperation as well as lower ethnic salience. In the context of the Nazi-fascist occupation of Italy between 1943and 1945, Gagliarducci et al (2018 show that BBC counter-propaganda, through Radio Londra, significantly affected the intensity of the resistance movement against the Nazi occupation and fascist regime, while Adena et al (2015) find a strongly positive effect of the Nazi radio propaganda on the popular support to the Nazi regime. 4 Although all these studies point to the significant persuasion exerted by radio, they do so by analyzing one single radio station at a time.…”