Possible Questions
“Media audiences always respond to media products in the way that producers intended.”
“Explain how historical contexts influence how audiences respond to media products.”
Moral Panic: Widespread hysterical fear and anxiety generated by the media representing something that could attack societal values.
Plan
During the 1930’s/40’s (the golden age of radio), Radio was a very new form of media that was challenging the need for and purpose of newspapers. The emergence of new technology at this time in history has parallels to the development of the digital world today. At this time, technology was transforming the public sphere – allowing the general public to discuss and think about ideas rather than being dictated by the elite, creating an “arena of public debate”
‘War of the Worlds’ radio broadcast by CBS can be seen as a form of media manipulation and an insight into how large institutions can abuse their power to generate confusion between what is ‘truth’ and what is ‘fake news’. In the early 20th Century, CBS was one of the few validated news sources trusted by Americans. In 1938, the USA feared possible emergence of a new war/ invasion so the themes of the drama, adapted from H.G Wells’ novel, had the power of creating moral panic.
Laswell looks at the passivity of audiences through the ‘hypodermic needle theory’ which explores how audiences are ‘injected’ with messages from the media and are ‘knocked into submission’ and assimilate themselves to these ideas. This is evident at the start of the broadcast, Welles (the narrator) reads the title of the episode followed by a description or prologue to signpost the sci-fi, dystopian genre conventions of the following plot: “We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man’s.” The use of the time stamp “20th century” sets the narrative in the same era as the listener creating realistic possibilities. With a lack of media literacy and a well-rounded education, many listeners could have been vulnerable to decoding an oppositional reading to Welles’ encoded message. Through the hybrid radio broadcast , Welles intended to warn listeners of possible invasion and threat from external forces. Near the end of the broadcast, Welles comes “out of character” and explains that “War of the Worlds has no further significance” which defies many contemporary listeners who mistook the radio play for truth and generated mass hysteria across the US.