War of the worlds
Context/Facts
Context:
| Feature | Link |
| Wyndham Goldie describes radio as “transforming space and time” | Radio transformed the public sphere, it made information available to those of varying class and provided education and news from all around the world. |
| Radio was in direct competition to newspapers | Newspapers and radio were in direct competition, from a suggestive perspective we can argue that newspapers tried to create a common enemy to manufacture consent from the public, with the aim of tearing down radio. |
| “golden age” of radio | Radio’s emergence and success threatened existing conglomerates and broke through the rules of the game, providing information that was less heavily regulated than newspapers at the time. |
| Owned by Columbia broadcasting company- private company | With the polarized class division between wealth and poverty, the majority of the public would not have been able to access a private radio broadcast- and therefore moral panic would more so be caused through a method of learning and imitation suggested by bandura |
| Documentary produced by radio lab states “98% of surveyed audience weren’t listening to the broadcast and the 2% that did said they understood it was fiction” | Trembles across the border separating myth from reality, where moral panic was not objectively true and has instead been manipulated by a third party, |
| Producer George wells performed a public apology after claims of people threatening to shoot him and burn down news stations | Historically accurate records provide insight into the mass panic definitely existing to such an extent, however the cause of so is not fixed. |
| Lasazfeld and Cantrils research on the Princeton radio research project estimates that only 25% of a 6 million people audience accepted the message- and the majority of these thought it was a broadcast about a German invasion. | Further evidence that suggests the broadcast was not a direct cause of the panic. |
| Lasazfeld and Cantrils research on the Princeton radio research project describes sensationalized newspaper publicity on the broadcast resulted in the myth of mass panic. | Evidence to support the suggestion that manipulation of the public was caused by the newspaper. |
Industries
Cultural Industries:
Hesmodhalgh-
Chomsky-
Chomsky wrote in “Manufacturing consent: the political economy of the media” that propaganda and systemic biases function in mass media through conglomerates used to manipulate consent from the public.
Newspapers and radio were in direct competition when War of the worlds was broadcasted, creating competition between the two media