facts about the novel

War of the Worlds, a science-fiction novel by author HG(Herbert George) Wells, was first published in 1898. It is a story of alien invasion and war between mankind and an extra-terrestrial race from Mars.

(be spectical about what is on line about the radio broadcast)

orson wells

In 1938, the world was on edge as Germany mobilised to invade Europe and populations feared gas attacks from another world war. In the weeks leading up to the 1938 broadcast, American radio stations had increasingly cut into scheduled programming to bring news updates from Europe on the chances of war. This meant Welles’s use of radio news conventions had more of an impact on listeners who were unaware that it was a fictional radio play.

The novel is the first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon

The War of the Worlds has been both popular (having never been out of print) and influential, spawning half a dozen feature films, radio dramas, a record album, various comic book adaptations, a number of television series, and sequels or parallel stories by other authors. It was most memorably dramatised in a 1938 radio programme that allegedly caused public panic among listeners who did not know the Martian invasion was fiction.

he novel has even influenced the work of scientists, notably Robert H. Goddard, who, inspired by the book, invented both the liquid fuelled rocketand multistage rocket, which resulted in the Apollo 11 Moon landing 71 years later

it was a halloween special

stanley Cohen links with “moral panics”

fake devils and moral panics

he talks about that every time there is something new that’s bad blame the media

development of radio

fake media vs media studies

32 million people listening to that broadcast

history

Andrew crissell wrote a book about understanding radio. learning the languages of different media forms

“radio is a blind media”- crissell

“Ive always said you can’t understand the world without the media nor the media without the world”-Professor Natalie Fenton, quoted in Fake news vs Media Studies J. McDougall p.17 2019, Palgrave)

this csp tells us more about the meaning behind the idea

For many, the wider social, political, historical and cultural contexts are not just clearly connected to media studies but they are in some ways more important.

This is the last CSP and again features in SECTION 3, assessed by a long form answer to a broad question which will look to assess knowledge and understanding around all four elements of the Theoretical Framework (Language, Representation, Industries, Audience) although most likely the focus will be on Audience, Language (ie the Language of Radio) and technology.

he argues that fake news is nothing new and is a good thing to think about when talking about this csp (McDougall)

a great example of fake news or proper gander is war of the worlds

hard times are a breading ground for misinformation

Facts about war of the worlds

• Written by H G Wells
• Published in 1898
• Radio broadcasted in 1938
• Broadcasted in the United States on October 30th
• Adapted as a film in 2005
• Science-fiction genre
• the novel influenced the work of scientists such as Robert H Goddard who invented the liquid fuelled rocket and multistage rocket which were inspired by the novel.
• Was broadcasted by CBS radio (Columbia broadcasting company), this company still exists today

historical, political and cultural context

• Broadcasted the year before world war 2
• One of the earliest novels about a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race
• Radio was one of the largest forms of media used at the time
• Nazi Germany escalated and began its persecution of the jews
• Almost 80% of American households owned a radio
• the Great Depression and the Wall Street crash both happened in the 1930’s
• Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini were all in power in the 1930’s
• The 1930’s to the 1940’s was known as the ‘golden age’ of radio

Is this broadcast an early example of fake news?

The broadcast was set out to mimic a real radio news broadcast however, before the broadcast started there was a disclaimer informing listeners that it was a performance of H G Wells’ war of the worlds novel. Although for people who may have switched radio stations to the broadcast midway through will have been confused and believed that it was a real broadcast. Radio was a relatively new type of media at the time and people were still learning about what its effects were on the public. Many argue that this broadcast was the birth of fake news as it caused panic in some parts of the United States as members of the public were calling their local authorities to ask for confirmation of the news that had heard on the broadcast. However, the panic that the broadcast was believed to have created is also believed to be a myth.