INSTITUTION

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

 “The War of the Worlds” was aired by Columbia Broadcasting Systems (an institution still in existence (in a very different form) today.)- 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.

Authors were Orson Welles and Howard Koch

Performed and broadcast live at 8 pm ET on October 30, 1938 over the CBS Radio Network

Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory, the two-step flow model and Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory

 Radio broadcasting was regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and it investigated the broadcast to see if it had broken any laws.

AUDIENCE

What techniques (ie 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 hypodermic needle theory suggests a media text can have a powerful and immediate effect on the passive audience. It would seem “The War of the Worlds” production supports this argument because so many terrified listeners, for example, “rushed out of their houses” to escape the “gas raid”

FACTS

• The War of the Worlds- an episode of the radio series “The Mercury Theatre on the Air”- was a radio series of live dramas which were created and hosted by Orson Welles in the United States. Originally released on July 11th to December 4th 1938.
• “The War of the Worlds”- Halloween radio episode which was performed and broadcasted live at 8pm until 9pm on October 30th 1938 and ran for 60 minutes (1 hour).

Context- On Oct. 30, 1938 millions of Americans tuned their radios to the weekly dramatic program “Mercury Theater of the Air” to listen to War of the Worlds a science fiction novel by H.G. Wells about an invasion from Mars. When Orson Welles adapted the story for radio he made it sound like a news broadcast, with actors playing reporters. Many people in the audience thought the “invasion” was real, and the broadcast caused a panic. Some people hid in their cellars, while others loaded guns or wrapped their heads in wet towels to protect themselves from Martian poison gas.

Quotes-  “The world is not coming to an end. Trust me.”

CE hooper rating survey- 98% weren’t actually listening to War of the Worlds- Radio lab broadcast of War of the Worlds from 2018