• ‘War Of The Worlds’ was a live broadcast which broadcasted on Columbia broadcasting systems (CBS) on October 30th 1938 8-9pm.
• Producers – Urban Myth Films, Fox Networks Group, Studio Canal.
• The broadcast was based of the book written by H.G Welles in 1898 and aired on the Halloween episode of ‘The mercury Theatre on The Air’. Listeners around the States believed that the broadcast was real and informing the public that Martians had invaded New Jersey, this instilled panic across the country.
• 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”.
• 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.

“The War of the Worlds” was the 17th episode of the CBS Radio series.
news bulletins would make people believe this actually happened.

Essay 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?

• Newsbeat is both a traditional radio programme with a regular schedule of broadcast times. But also available to watch later online.
• Its been broadcasting since 1973 on BBC radio 1.
• targets a audience of young people between 15 and 30.
• Its funded by the tax from the government, the money from certain tax goes to the BBC for education.
• Its a 15 minute programme that broadcasts at 12:45 and 17:45
• newsbeat presenters use shorts words and talk simply to make the majority of the young people listening better understand what their saying.
• 9 million listeners in the first quarter of 2020.
• Its broadcasted on radio 1, radio 1 extra and the Asian Network.

1. Regulated by Ofcom and includes the use of language for the protection of under 18s.
2. Targets audiences between 15 and 30, simplifies words for them.
3. Newsbeat is also available to watch online, and not live.
4. It broadcasts on radio 1, radio 1 extra and the Asian Network.
5. Its funded by the government.
6. They first started broadcasting in the 10th September 1973.
7. One of their purposes is to provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.
8. Main programmes broadcast at 12:45 and 17:45.

I argue that the BBC want to get the younger audiences attention. For newsbeat to appeal to their target audience of young people. They use tactics like simplifying words, not using complex words, and shortening the time of newsbeat to prevent boredom.

Press Quality television?
– Well acted.
– Well written.
– Professional editing that fits the genre.
– Good Cinematography
– Good Storyline
– Good lighting

Broadcasting:
Communicating with lots of people.

Narrowcasting:
Communicating with niche audiences.

Populism is creating something from what people want, whereas paternalism is creating something from what people should have.

BBC charter how they follow the ethos
BBC ethos – inform and educate
They don’t do what the people want, but inform them on what they should do with regulation, on phones there is no regulation.

The people were concerned with new technologies.
lord Reith didn’t even know what a broadcast was.
Radio and television would be the most influential tool ever used.
its the transformation of the public sphere>

Reith had a fear of the new technology television.

• Oh Comely is peaceful and disarming, a magazine that wants you to take your time with it.
• Sadly, the magazine was impacted by the pandemic and the final issue was published in September 2021.
• Oh comely magazine is a niche women’s lifestyle publication with a strong feminist perspective.
•  It launched in 2010 and publishes six issues a year.
•  It describes itself as a curious, honest and playful independent magazine.
• Each issue was available to purchase for £5 in a few newsagents, independent retailers, cafes and museums.
• Iceberg Press owns the oh comely magazine.
• Oh Comely is the work of Liz, Dani, Rosanna, Gemma and Beth.

It doesn’t use the male gaze and showcase the female body. Instead they use a direct gaze to feature women in a different model other than the sexualised images other companies use with the male gaze.

The focus is on women as artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and musicians and female empowerment is a major theme.

Theory’s and theorists:

Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze:


Stuart hall – Reception theory (Dominant, negotiated, opposition )
Bell hooks – Feminist theory
Van Zoonen – Feminism and patriarchal theory
Judith Butler – Gender Performativity

	What do you know about	what meanings or understandings do you have of their ideas?
Lasswell	Hypodermic model: People are passive consumers of media. Harold Lasswell wrote “subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers knocked them into a submission.	There are 2 types of consumption active and passive. Passive is receiving media such as watching the news. Active is looking for a specific type of news
Lazarfeld	Paul Felix Lazarsfeld, conducted large scale studies of the effect of communication through mass media on society, on voting behaviour. he developed the two-step-flow theory of communication. He directed a study into the decision making process of voters. His team interviewed 600 people from the state of Ohio and documented the psychological and social factors.
Uses and Gratification
Stuart Hall	Jamaican-born British sociologist and cultural theorist. He was the founder of the influential “new left Review”( British bimonthly journal of ideas covering world politics, economy, and culture). He has a Representation theory. its important because culture is always formed through meaning and language. 1.Dominant 2.Negotiate 3.Opposition Stuart hall says these are the 3 ways people can interpret something from the media.
George Gerbner	Cultivation theory: The media influences our ideas and opinion. IN the first instance, reception theory, suggests that exposure to reinforced messages will influence our ideas, attributes, and beliefs.
Clay Shirky	Who believes that Gerbners ideas are no long applicable to contempory modes of media consumption.
Henry Jenkins	Who beliees that modern audiences
David Gauntlett

Hearst publishing is a multinational conglomerate which publishes men’s health and a range of other fashion and lifestyle magazines. Developments in new technologies mean that many of their brands are now online as well as in print.

Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, television channels, and television stations such as the san Francisco chronicle, the Houston chronicle , cosmopolitan and esquire.

The company was founded by William Randolph Hearst.

Hearst is a leading global, diversified information, services and media company with operations in 40 countries.
has major interests such as
– Financial services leader Fitch group.
– Hearst Health (group of medical information and services businesses)
– Hearst transportation, including CAMP systems international, major provider of software solutions for managing maintenance of jets and helicopters
– Ownership in cable television networks such as A&E

The men’s health magazine had an average monthly reach of around 1.8 million individuals in the united Kingdom from April 2019 to march 2020.
The reach was lower among households with children.

WHO = Hearst communication, men’s health, editor – Morgan Rees
SAYS WHAT = They want greater control over their physical and mental lives
CHANNEL = print through lifestyle magazine, also online (website)
TO WHOM = Active men, professional men and educated with families.
WITH WHAT EFFECT = To sell magazines.

The men’s health magazines are lined to Paul Lazarsfeld as the audience consumes the magazine as a product are passive. This means they are passively consuming the information on the magazine.

what uses and gratification

You can see escapism on the Hugo boss advert as the consumer will use this magazine to escape and get away. It gives the consumer self confidence, stability and self-esteem, by using the same product that the influencer/celebrity is shown to be represented alongside the product.

• Dominant
• Negotiate
• Opposition
  Stuart hall says these are the 3 ways people can interpret something from the media.

If you are dominant, you would accept the features and meaning behind the men’s health magazine.

If you are negotiated, the u see two sides towards and you understand the meaning behind it but also see the consequences of it, such as men feeling pressure to now look like the man on the front cover.

If you have a oppositional view, you don’t see the purpose of the men’s health magazine and wouldn’t sell you.

People that view the media on a person, influencer or world leader don’t have their own personal view on them due to how the media represents them. The media chooses how those people are viewed to the audiences that watches it. Even though those audiences haven’t spoken to or actually met that person in real life.

George Gerbner
cultivation theory:
the media influences our ideas and opinion. IN the first instance, reception theory, suggests that exposure to reinforced messages will influence our ideas, attributes, and beliefs

The abuse of power, and the use of money in the series to abuse power. such as when Joshua West paid the press costs and damages to take down the paper with the front cover based around him.

The press acts in the middle of society, to feed information about high people in society, such as the royal family, prime minister, to the millions of people like us.

The complicit links between those in power at the expense of those who are subservient. Chomsky says that consent is manufactured, the truth is hidden.

Rules and regulation, laws, court,

Brief 2:

For my coursework, I will be creating a newspaper with a front page and a double-page spread, and will be reporting about the top stories and news fairly recent to when I’m creating it. My audience will be people of all ages living in my region.

For my front page, I want to write about the top stories and news in jersey, such as “petrol prices rising near to £2 a litre”, as many people in jersey have cars and are being affected by the current situation, making it related to them. I will also include “Covid-19 cases surging 59% in a week”. These pages of the newspaper will be based on big newspapers such as Daily mail, The I or the guardian. I will be linking this to the key audience theory involving the hypodermic model and the passive consumption that newspapers have towards the public audience.

Style Model: