Links to websites about War of the Worlds:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/the-war-of-the-worlds-panic-was-a-myth/

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/welles-scares-nation

Andrew Crissell

• Wrote the book “Understanding Radio”
• He seeks to “determine the distinctive characteristics of the radio medium”
• Describes radio as a source of “blind media”

J. McDougall

• Created a book called Fake News vs Media Studies
• Explains fake news can be seen as propaganda
• Says “hard times are a breeding ground for misinformation”

War of the Worlds Radio Podcast

• Maybe these aliens in War of the Worlds are a metaphor for the enemies because the War of the Worlds podcast was produced in 1930s, which was when the Great Depression, the American Dust bowl and WW2 began.
• It is a radio podcast of a science fiction novel that was written by H.G Wells
• War of the Worlds radio drama had left listeners into suspended disbelief and became famous because it tricked people into believing aliens were invading Earth due to the “breaking news” style of the broadcast.
• “The War of the Worlds” was the 17th episode of the CBS Radio series The Mercury Theatre on Air, which was broadcast at 8 pm ET on Sunday, October 30, 1938.
• H. G. Wells’ original novel tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth. The novel was adapted for radio by Howard Koch, who changed the primary setting from 19th-century England to the contemporary United States, with the landing point of the first Martian spacecraft changed to rural Grover’s Mill, an unincorporated village in West Windsor Township, New Jersey.
• The science fiction drama was broadcasted from CBS, which is the Columbia Broadcasting System
• The radio science fiction drama was directed by Orson Welles and was adapted by Howard Koch
• It was described as an anti-war film by Debra Sanders
• It is a hybridization of the science fiction genre and the mystery genre.
• Normal radio episodes were broadcasted and then there was a gap before War of the Worlds was played, which makes it seem as if these broadcasts are a metaphor for other things
• War of the Worlds was a Halloween special
• In 1938, radios were just being introduced,s o it can be interpreted that War of the World was fake news to try and get more people to listen to CBS and buy radios.
• On it’s opening evening, it was estimated that around 30 million people were tuning into the broadcast and around 80% of Americans owned a radio then.

Stanley Cohen

https://www.tutor2u.net/sociology/reference/folk-devils-and-moral-panics-cohen-1972

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_devil

https://prezi.com/mjw8xi_841ra/stanley-cohen-folk-devils-moral-panic/

• Write a book called Folk Devils and Moral Panic
• His theory was introduced in 1972.
• Folk devil is a person or group of people who are portrayed in folklore or the media as outsiders and deviant, and who are blamed for crimes or other sorts of social problems. This can also be called a scapegoat
• The pursuit of folk devils frequently intensifies into a mass movement that is called a moral panic.
• When a moral panic is in full swing, the folk devils are the subject of loosely organized but pervasive campaigns of hostility through gossip and the spreading of urban legends.
• The mass media sometimes get in on the act or attempt to create new folk devils in an effort to promote controversy. Sometimes the campaign against the folk devil influences a nation’s politics and legislation.