• A famous episode due to the fact is ensued panic on those who listened, them thinking there was an actual Martian invasion of Earth taking place.
• The program is a simulation of a “live event” where it plays bulletins as if it were a real radio being interrupted by an emergency broadcast.
• “The War of the Worlds” was the 17th episode of the CBS Radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, which was broadcast at 8 pm ET on October 30, 1938, making this a Halloween special.
• The scare was intended with the Narrator and Director “Orson Welles ” said  “and would be broadcast in such a dramatized form as to appear to be a real event taking place at that time, rather than a mere radio play”
• Out of an estimated 6 million listeners, 1.7 million believed the story and 1.2 million got disturbed/scared. Even thought 30 minutes through the show, an announcement was made saying it was just a story.

Linked Theories

Gerbners idea that what people listen or watch, slowly becomes what they actually think or believe. Which in this case is the people who were scared or frightened, not listening to the announcement that it was fake and paying attention to the start/finish and name of the broadcast being The Mercury Theatre on the Air.

Halls idea is the multiple types of audience that listen to the war of the worlds. Each with their own set of reactions. Firstly, Dominant, or Preferred Reading – how the producer wants the audience to view the media text. The creator of war of the worlds wanted the audience to understand and be entertained by a documentery/story piece.

Oppositional Reading – when the audience rejects the preferred reading, and creates their own meaning for the text. In this case it would be people running out of their houses with their families.

Negotiated Reading – a compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings, where the audience accepts parts of the producer’s views, but has their own views on parts as well. In this example it would be people getting frightened of the piece and turning it off.

Lasswells 5 forms of communication.
who said it: Columbia Broadcasting Company
what was said: A story based on the idea Martians were arriving on earth.
in which channel it was said: Radio
to who it was said: A radio audience of 12 million people
what effect it had when it was said: 6 Million scared or frightened, with 1.2 million going to the lengths of running out with their families in fear.

Fake news

Fake news started and was made consistently since 1755, so in this case it was not an abnormal thing to be broadcasted or seen.

War of the Worlds is an early example of a hybrid radio form, adapting the H.G Welles story using news and documentary conventions. The broadcast and the initial response to it has historical significance as an early, documented, example of the mass media apparently having a direct effect on an audience’s behaviour. The academic research carried out into the broadcast provided some of the early media audience research and the findings have been extremely influential in the media, advertising and political campaigning.

Media Institutions:

• War of Worlds was broadcasted by Columbia Broadcasting Company – an institution still in existence which is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network
• Radio broadcasting was in competition with print products such as newspapers which was previously the usual way to gather news
• Regulation – radio broadcasting was regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and it investigated the broadcast to see if it had broken any laws.

Media Audiences:

• Consider the way that external factors – global political context, gender, religion, education etc. – are likely to also affect audience response
• Cultivation theory including Gerbner
• The ways in which audiences interpret the same media product differently – at the time of broadcast and now (Reception theory including Hall)

-Poorer audio quality, longer more elaborate vocabulary to explain facts, maybe hinting towards the downfall of English language and understanding in correlation to the rise of technology.

-Radio being a place for education as this was in the “golden age”, one could suggest that this broadcast was the earliest ideal of fake news as lesser educated people would listen in and maybe not understand the idea of satiricalism, or sci-fi fiction.

Even the two-step flow model of communication provides some insight into how the panic unfolded. For instance, a “throng of playgoers had rushed” from a “theatre” because “news” of the invasion had “spread” to the audience. The New York Times also reported how the “rumour” of war “spread through the district and many persons stood on street corners hoping for a sight of the ‘battle’ in the skies”. Therefore, not everyone who was terrorised by the radio play was actually listening to the broadcast. They heard the rumours from people they trusted in their social circle.

How did the public react?

• According to RadioLab, about 12 million people were listening to the broadcast and 1 in every 12 people thought it was true, with some percentage of that 1 million people ran out their homes
• Morning Edition, for instance, reported in 2005 that “listeners panicked, thinking the story was real.” Many supposedly jumped in their cars to flee the area of the “invasion.”
• There’s also this report from PBS-TV’s American Experience, which says that “although most listeners understood that the program was a radio drama, the next day’s headlines reported that thousands of others plunged into panic, convinced that America was under a deadly Martian attack.”

Quotes from the broadcast:

• “At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars.”
• “It is reported that at 8:50 P. M. a huge, flaming object, believed to be a meteorite, fell on a farm in the neighborhood of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, twenty-two miles from Trenton.”
• Phillips: “And what did you hear?”
  • Wilmuth: “A hissing sound. Like this:ssssss . . . kinda like a fourth of July rocket”
  • “I don’t know what to think. The metal casing is definitely extra-terrestrial . . . not found on this earth. Friction with the earth’s atmosphere usually tears holes in a meteorite. This thing is smooth and, as you can see, of cylindrical shape.”
  •  “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed . . . Wait a minute! Someone’s crawling out of the hollow top. Someone or . . . something. I can see peering out of that black hole two luminous disks . . are they eyes? It might be a face. It might be . . .”
  •  “Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, both the observations of science and the evidence of our eyes lead to the inescapable assumption that those strange beings who landed in the Jersey farmlands tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from the planet Mars.”

War of the worlds was originally a book published in 1898

Orson Welles narrated the broadcast in 1938 radio drama, he explained to reporters that he had no intention to cause a panic. October 31st, 1938

original release: October 30th, 1938, 8 – 9 pm ET

The war of the worlds was a Halloween episode of the radio series The mercury theatre on the Air directed and narrated by Orson Welles as an adaption of H . G. wells novel The war of the worlds. It was performed and broadcasted live at 8 pm ET on October 30, 1938 over the CBS Radio Network.

The second portion of the show shifts to a conventional radio drama format that follows a survivor (played by Welles) dealing with the aftermath of the invasion and the ongoing Martian occupation of Earth. 

Some listeners heard only a portion of the broadcast and, in the tension and anxiety prior to World War II, mistook it for a genuine news broadcast. Thousands of them shared the false reports with others or called CBS, newspapers, or the police to ask if the broadcast was real.

The episode is famous for inciting a panic by convincing some members of the listening audience that a Martian invasion was taking place, though the scale of panic is disputed, as the program had relatively few listeners.

Orson Welles prepared to direct 10 actors and a 27-piece orchestra for the Columbia Broadcasting System’s weekly “Mercury Theatre on the Air” program.

Millions of Americans back then listened to CBS but it was announced that welles and his cast members were presenting  an original dramatization of the 1898 H.G. Wells science-fiction novel “The War of the Worlds.” Instead, most of the country was tuned in to NBC’s popular “Chase and Sanborn Hour,” which featured ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy. 

For the rest of the hour, terror crackled over the airwaves. Breathless reporters detailed an extra-terrestrial army of squid-like figures that killed thousands of earthlings with heat rays and black clouds of poison gas as they steamrolled into New York City. Welles and the rest of the cast impersonated astronomers, state militia officials and even the Secretary of the Interior, who cannily sounded like President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

A remake of the radio broadcast based on The War of the Worlds (1938) brought pandemonium to Quito, Ecuador, in 1949, as thousands of people attempted to escape impending Martian gas raids. A mob set fire to the radio station’s building, killing fifteen inside.

History context

People back then were vulnerable to fake news because they lacked other news sources, They were limited back then compared to now.

 By the end of the broadcast, CBS’s switchboard was ablaze, phone lines to police stations were jammed, people around the country were panicking, and people in Newark, N.J. wrapped their faces in wet towels and drove like hell out of town

 Researchers estimated, conservatively, that about 6 million people (a small audience then) heard the show, and about a million or so were genuinely frightened.

 Those who tuned in late and did not hear the opening disclaimer that this was a play were especially prone to being scared. In the first three weeks after the broadcast, newspapers around the country ran more than 12,500 stories about its impact.

39:30 it stops and fades off until

 It was still the Great Depression, with the unemployment rate hovering around 19 percent. In places like Flint, Mich., nearly half of the city’s families were on public relief

 Americans were experiencing this seemingly relentless economic uncertainty, another world war seemed imminent. Just one month before the broadcast, Hitler, having already annexed Austria, demanded that Germany be allowed to annex a portion of Czechoslovakia.

 Those who failed to ​“fact check” in some manner were more likely to panic, as were those with the least education and those who were highly suggestible

 The researchers also found that religion was an important factor in people falling for the broadcast; those who had strong, Bible-based beliefs thought this was the apocalypse, an act of God.

The New York Times reported “a wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners” with some adults requiring “medical treatment for shock and hysteria”. Apparently, “thousands of persons” phoned different agencies “seeking advice on protective measures against the raids”

Theory’s

The cultivation theory: This theory can explain some of the hysteria that was caused. Gerbner’s research showed that heavy users of television, radio and newspapers have become more used to its messages.

First, “The War of the Worlds” was aired by Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS) – one of only two national broadcasters who were trusted by millions of listeners every day to deliver reliable and impartial news.

 It is also important to note that CBS frequently interrupted scheduled programmes to inform their listeners of the latest updates from Europe.

 In the weeks prior to “The War of the Worlds” episode, the network reported on Hitler’s continued occupation Czechoslovakia and the inevitability of another global conflict.

Media institutions

• War of the Worlds was broadcast by Columbia Broadcasting Company – an institution still in existence (in a 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 (known as ‘auteur theory’) as this is the work of Orson Welles.

Media audiences

• What techniques (i.e Media Language) does the broadcast use to convince the audience that what they’re hearing is really happening?
• Consider the way that external factors – global political context, gender, religion, education etc. – are likely to also affect audience response
• The ways in which audiences interpret the same media product differently – at the time of broadcast and now (Reception theory including Hall)
• Cultivation theory including Gerbner

-Poorer audio quality, longer more elaborate vocabulary to explain facts, maybe hinting towards the downfall of English language and understanding in correlation to the rise of technology.

-Radio being a place for education as this was in the “golden age”, one could suggest that this broadcast was the earliest ideal of fake news as lesser educated people would listen in and maybe not understand the idea of satiricalism, or sci-fi fiction.

Even the two-step flow model of communication provides some insight into how the panic unfolded. For instance, a “throng of playgoers had rushed” from a “theatre” because “news” of the invasion had “spread” to the audience. The New York Times also reported how the “rumour” of war “spread through the district and many persons stood on street corners hoping for a sight of the ‘battle’ in the skies”. Therefore, not everyone who was terrorised by the radio play was actually listening to the broadcast. They heard the rumours from people they trusted in their social circle.

War of the worlds (1938) was a widespread outbreak in media. The audience were vulnerable as they weren’t aware as there were no resources available for them to realise it wasn’t true hence the lack of education they had. They only had the source they were given and it was down to them whether they wanted to believe it or not. Linked theories are the hypodermic needle theory and cultivation theory.

-Poorer audio quality, longer more elaborate vocabulary to explain facts, maybe hinting towards the downfall of English language and understanding in correlation to the rise of technology.

-In relation to media industries, radio at this time was directly in competition to newspapers- therefore signifying the beginning of the public sphere diminishing throughout society (Habermas). This is due to major broadcasts being regulated to all over the worlds taking over the newspapers displaying everybody’s viewpoint,

-Power of media; if society turned there back to media broadcasts and products how much knowledge would we hold about modern day situations from around the world- ultimately holding media in a high power giving the question “can we trust it?”. We can correlate this to the fact that the media we consume can manipulate stories with their power and with the rise of fake news we have to consume it to have some understanding with the realisation it may not be trustworthy.

-Representation: through the use of codes and conventions and cross media techniques (conversations and music playing) they present this sci-fi broadcast as something that can seem real, steave neals theory of genre can be used to analyse how war of the news became so successful- with the new age of technology they provide entertainment with a repertoire of unique and different codes and conventions.

Specific signifiers of social class can be linked with Wyndhem-Goldies quote “transforming time and space”, suggesting radio opens a new world of knowledge to the public, such as agriculture and language- therefore maybe considering that radio was a help for the poorer uneducated people to gain knowledge about the world.

-In referral to audiences, you can argue that radio opened up a world of education to different genders, backgrounds and classes. For example the fight of feminism would still be apparent during this time, and via stereotypical/reactionary gender roles women would stay at home and be less educated by the men who were the workers. The women who stayed at home could listen in to the radio and gain more knowledge maybe creating fear over the patriarchal society as it was a gateway for change.

-Radio being a place for education as this was in the “golden age”, one could suggest that this broadcast was the earliest ideal of fake news as lesser educated people would listen in and maybe not understand the idea of satiricalism, or sci-fi fiction.

-With the cultivation theory via gerbner, specifically focussing on the mean world index, radio would be broadcasting about the hardships that the world was heavily going through during this time, audiences therefore perceiving the world as bad. In combination with the sci fi talking about fictional wars- the potential of misinformation drastically increases as it would be predictable for more bad things to manifest throughout society.

-Owned by columbia broadcatsing company that still exists to this day

– the broadcasts progressed through the story of an alien invasion on mars, and ends with “is anyone on air” continued with no response, this elaborate story telling in addition to cultivation theory can shock specific viewers as while radio opened a whole new world, some of the uneducated could be in belief of this sci fi, no one was harmed through this broadcasts, but it is one of the earlier manifestations of fake news.

-Halls reception theory can show the different ways the broadcast can be encoded, in combination with lasswells hyperdemic model that later was adapted by shannon and weaver, we can analyse the fact there were many different ways people could encode the message, or providing error and disruption.

-There’s a suggestion of many panic and pandemonium caused upon the public from the broadcast however can we really trust this? How do we know it wasn’t a production issue to entice more people to use radio? A publicity stunt? Link back to trust topic.

-Hall reception theory

-The main topic about this scp is the idea on what media is truthful and what is not, the emergence of the public fear from the broadcasts displayed on sights today such as Wikipedia suggest the public was heavily influenced and fearful, yet the documentary produced by radiolab about war of the worlds mention that 98% of surveyed audience weren’t listening to the broadcast and the 2% that did said they understood it wasn’t a news broadcast, the fear was mainly influenced via the newspaper suggesting mass pandemonium. through the decade newspaper and radio were in direct competition with each other and there was a fear of emerging technology- the newspaper producing this negative reaction yet not backed up with evidence could be newspaper trying to emerge above radio? Was this the early development of fake news? and if it is still used in sights today explaining the fear then are we active consumers at all? We have no 100% proof of either side being completely reliable or valid which also correlates with the amount of power media has and the trust that passive consumers would have in it, think Laswell’s hypodermic model of passive consumption.

Expanding on this produces two questions; was the development of new technology good or bad? Habermas talks about the public sphere which was clearly diminished throughout the development of new technology ultimately resulting in audiences becoming increasingly passive- which supports this being bad. Yet also it transformed the world and provided education into all backgrounds, leading to movements to achieve equality today- expanding our intelligence and viewpoint, our communication through everywhere in the world- Which would suggest it was a good thing.

George Welles the producer of the broadcast performed a public apology, there are claims say people were threatening to shoot him, and burning down news stations. He seemed threatened yet is this reliable.

Background:

The episode begins with an introductory monologue based closely on the opening of the original novel, after which the program takes on the format of an evening of typical radio programming being periodically interrupted by news bulletins. It was a Halloween episode.

The first portion of the episode climaxes with another live report from the rooftop of a Manhattan radio station. The correspondent describes crowds fleeing clouds of poison smoke released by giant Martian “war machines” and “dropping like flies” as the gas approaches his location. Eventually he coughs and falls silent, and a lone ham radio operator asks, “Is there anyone on the air? Isn’t there… anyone?” with no response. The program takes its first break thirty minutes after Welles’s introduction. The second portion of the show shifts to a conventional radio drama format that follows a survivor (played by Welles) dealing with the aftermath of the invasion and the ongoing Martian occupation of Earth. The final segment lasts for about sixteen minutes, and like the original novel, concludes with the revelation that the Martians have been defeated by microbes rather than by humans. The broadcast ends with a brief “out of character” announcement by Welles in which he compares the show to “dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying ‘boo!'”

Introduction:

Orson Welles’ adaption of “The War of the Worlds” provides a terrific introduction to the debate surrounding the media’s ability to influence the audience and shape our behaviour and beliefs. Performed live in 1938, the radio drama depicted a Martian invasion of earth, but the broadcast allegedly provoked widespread panic because many listeners thought the attack was real.

Facts:

“The War of the Worlds” mixes science fiction tropes with the conventions of radio broadcasts to create a very entertaining narrative. Combining these two elements into a hybrid radio form was a great innovation, but it may have duped some listeners into believing the news bulletins and reports were a true account of the Martian conquest.

Although the story of interplanetary warfare is typical of the science fiction genre, it was presented within the format of normal evening of radio programming. There appears to be a routine report from the “Government Weather Bureau” about a “slight atmospheric disturbance” along the east coast of America. We are then “entertained by the music of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra” who are playing a tango from the Park Plaza Hotel. Even the “special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News”, which interrupts the music, met the expectations of the contemporary audience.

Since radio was a relatively new form of mass communication, it could also be argued that many listeners lacked the media literacy needed to understand “The War of the Worlds” was a pastiche of its codes and conventions. Although Welles argued his format “was not even new” and it might seem like an obvious trick to a modern audience, many of the listeners may not have realised the drama was just entertainment.

Historical Context

At the time the novel was written (1898) the British Empire was by far the most dominant colonial power on earth. So vast was the British Empire that at the end of the 19^th century the sun literally never set on it. London was (as it still is) the political capital of the United Kingdom and was the most populous city on earth throughout the last half of the 19^th century, becoming the first city to have more than 5 million inhabitants by the 1880’s.  It is therefore natural that London was chosen as the starting point for an imagined alien invasion. The power of the crown was diminishing as voter rolls increased and centralized parties strengthened. Legislation protecting workers reflected growing progressive views, and technological advances made travel and communication easier and more widespread than ever before. In a show of British achievement and industrial and scientific superiority, the Great Exhibition of 1851 showcased the technological advances of the day including the microscope, barometer, electric telegraphs, early forms of photography, and surgical instruments.

Hybrid Genre

Orson Welles was initially reluctant to adapt War of the Worlds, describing it as ‘boring’. He was persuaded by the prospect of using recent developments in radio news reporting to create a hybrid-form radio play designed to sound like a real breaking news story. The broadcast begins with a music performance that is increasingly interrupted by breaking news of Martians invading New Jersey.

Audiences

Cultivation theory – the media creates a ‘mean scary world’, audiences would already be afraid/aware of communism etc, many assumed the broadcast was a German invasion. The cultivation theory can also explain some of the hysteria. Gerbner’s research suggested heavy users of television become more susceptible / exposed to its messages, especially if the texts resonate with the viewer. One army veteran said the radio play “was too realistic for comfort” while another New York resident was “convinced it was the McCoy” when the “names and titles” of different officials, such as the Secretary of the Interior, were mentioned in the script. Perhaps it was this group of listeners who believed the broadcast was an accurate report of events that night because they were already familiar with the special bulletin format, which were known then as break-ins, and assumed the war in Europe had intensified.

Even the two-step flow model of communication provides some insight into how the panic unfolded. For instance, a “throng of playgoers had rushed” from a “theatre” because “news” of the invasion had “spread” to the audience. The New York Times also reported how the “rumour” of war “spread through the district and many persons stood on street corners hoping for a sight of the ‘battle’ in the skies”. Therefore, not everyone who was terrorised by the radio play was actually listening to the broadcast. They heard the rumours from people they trusted in their social circle.

By incorporating these basic radio codes into the start of the script, it is clear the writers were trying to make the story sound plausible. According to Baudrillard’s simulation theory, this would be the first stage which is a “reflection of reality”.

Possible questions:

1. Explain how Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast used the codes and conventions of radio to convince the audience Martians were invading New York.
2. How do the cultural and historical circumstances affect the audience’s interpretation of media texts? Refer to the Close Study Product War of the Worlds in your answer.
3. Discuss how and why audiences might respond to and interpret media texts differently depending on the social context they are consumed. Refer to the Close Study Product War of the Worlds in your answer.
4. “There is no doubt the media has a profound influence on the audience’s thoughts and behaviour.” To what extent does your analysis of the Close Study Product War of the Worlds support this view?