Section C (teen vogue, i, WotW) – 2Q both 20 marks

Language of radio, audience and technology likely (+representation)

Andrew Crissel quote some bs

Fake News is old

broadcast on eve of WW2 and spread panic to US of invasion

Overview: Ray Ferrier, a dockworker, and his children are all set to spend a weekend together. However, an alien tripod descends on Earth, threatening to wipe out humanity.

By 1935, there were two times more radios in the home then telephones

“Moral Panic” Stanley Cohen – “Folk devils and moral panics” (worries in the public that media causes)

Andrew Crissel – “Radio is a blind media”

cbs produced world of wars

• War of the Worlds was broadcast by Columbia Broadcasting Company – an institution still in existence (in a very different form) today.
• Radio broadcasting was seen as direct competition to newspapers which had previously been the only way of receiving news.
• The broadcast is typical of the way institutions are always looking for new styles in order to attract audiences.
• Regulation – radio broadcasting was regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and it investigated the broadcast to see if it had broken any laws.
• The broadcast provides an excellent example to consider the effect of individual producers on media industries as this is the work of Orson Welles.

War of the Worlds can be considered in a historical context as it provides an interesting study of the power and influence of radio as a form during its early days of broadcasting. It is also useful to consider the product in a social, cultural and political context when considering audience responses to the programme. It was first broadcast on the eve of World War II and reflected fears of invasion in the US and concerns about international relations.