possible questions:

• ‘“Media audiences always respond to media products in the way that producers intended.”

• The broadcast was meant to be a drama reading of the book, but it caused a widespread panic. This may have happened due to the fact that there was no other evidence to suggest otherwise. The fact that on the broadcast they were frequently interrupting the story for news bulletins and weather sections, this may have lead to audiences not being able to decipher between reality and the story, therefore leading to them believing the story being real and causing a colossal panic.
• Stuart Hall’s encode/decode theory supports this as the audience decoded the message in a different way then it was encoded

• Explain how historical contexts influence how audiences respond to media products.
  • You should refer to the Close Study Product The War of the Worlds to support your answer.

At the very end, Orson Welles speaks “out of character” and “assures” the audience that the broadcast had no more significance than a child “dressing up in a sheet” at Halloween. Perhaps these disclaimers were simply too late to stop the panic.

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/media-studies/AQA-75721-EX.PDF