# Swann Lecture: War News: Norman Rockwell, Radio-Induced Jitters, and World War II Cartoons

Joseph Semkiu, a PhD candidate in art history at the University of Southern California and Swann Fellow at the Library of Congress, examines how radio shaped the US home front during World War II, informing listeners and creating “war jitters” as war news filtered over the airwaves, serving as the impetus of Norman Rockwell’s Armchair General (1944), painted for The Saturday Evening Post. No matter how fraught, war news––whether sonic or from the printed page––kept a nation motivated towards victory; and this talk examines how Rockwell’s painting, alongside magazine covers, newspaper cartoons, and propaganda posters, depicted the dissemination and reception of war news on the home front. This lecture examines how radio shaped the US home front during World War II, informing listeners and creating “war jitters” as war news filtered over the airwaves, serving as the impetus of Norman Rockwell’s Armchair General (1944), painted for The Saturday Evening Post. No matter how fraught, war news––whether sonic or from the printed page––kept a nation motivated towards victory; and this talk examines how Rockwell’s painting, alongside magazine covers, newspaper cartoons, and propaganda posters, depicted the dissemination and reception of war news on the home front.

- Kind: Cartoon
- Year: 2026
- Runtime: 36 min
- By: Semkiu, Joseph
- Genres: Animation, War, Education, News
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/video-12817/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/video-12817?play=1)