Media Factsheet
Read Media Factsheet #176: CSP Radio - War of the Worlds. You'll need your Greenford Google login to download it. Then answer the following questions:
1) What is the history and narrative behind War of the Worlds?
Orson Welles’ radio adaption of War of the Worlds has become notable not for the broadcast itself but for the reaction it received, and the subsequent press reporting of the audience’s reaction to the broadcast. It is often highlighted as an early example of mass hysteria caused by the media and used to support various audience theories.
2) When was it first broadcast and what is the popular myth regarding the reaction from the audience?
Broadcast live on 30th October 1938, popular myth has it that thousands of New Yorkers fled their homes in panic, and all across America people crowded the streets to witness for themselves the real space battle between earth and the Martians. The Trenton Police Department (close to the site of the fictional invasion) received over 2000 calls in less than two hours, while the New York Times switchboard received 875 calls from concerned listeners wanting to know where they would be safe.
3) How did the New York Times report the reaction the next day?
MANY FLEE HOMES TO ESCAPE ‘GAS RAID FROM MARS’ – PHONE CALLS SWAMP POLICE AT BROADCAST OF WELLES FANTASY A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o’clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatisation of H. G. Wells’s fantasy, “The War of the Worlds,” led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York. The broadcast, which disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems, was made by Orson Welles, who as the radio character, “The Shadow,” used to give “the creeps” to countless child listeners. This time at least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria.
4) How did author Brad Schwartz describe the the broadcast and its reaction?
Author Brad Schwartz in his 2015 book ‘Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News’ suggests that hysteria it caused was not entirely a myth. “Instead it was something decades ahead of its time: history’s first viral-media phenomenon.” He argues that “the stories of those whom the show frightened offer a fascinating window onto how users engage with media content, spreading and reinterpreting it to suit their own world views.
5) Why did Orson Welles use hybrid genres and pastiche and what effect might it have had on the audience?
By creating a hybrid form – mixing conventional storytelling with news conventions – Welles blurred the boundaries between fact and fiction in a way that audiences had never experienced. David Miller in his textbook ‘Introduction to Collective Behaviour’ writes that after its broadcast “some people called [CBS] to find out where they could go to donate blood.
6) How did world events in 1938 affect the way audiences interpreted the show?
It was increasingly competing with newspapers for audiences and advertisers and, in 1938, was winning the battle.
7) Which company broadcast War of the Worlds in 1938?
War of the Worlds was broadcast by the CBS Radio network. Founded in 1927 CBS Radio was one of two network radio stations broadcasting to the nation.
8) Why might the newspaper industry have deliberately exaggerated the response to the broadcast?
It has been suggested that the panic was trumped up by the newspapers to rubbish this new medium which it viewed as a huge threat. “Radio is new but it has adult responsibilities. It has not mastered itself or the material it uses,” said the editorial leader in the New York Times on November 1st 1938. Professors Jefferson Pooley and Michael J Socolow writing in Slate magazine in 2013 state: “How did the story of panicked listeners begin? Blame America’s newspapers. Radio had siphoned off advertising revenue from print during the Depression, badly damaging the newspaper industry.
9) Does War of the Worlds provide evidence to support the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory?
Orson Welles’ broadcast is frequently cited as an example to support passive audience theories, such as the Frankfurt School’s ‘Hypodermic Syringe Theory’. This states that audiences consume and respond to media texts in an unquestioning way, believing what they read, see or hear. This might be true of the audiences of the 1930s, unfamiliar with new media forms like radio, but in the modern age it carries less weight.
10) How might Gerbner's cultivation theory be applied to the broadcast?
Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory might offer a more accurate explanation of the audience’s behaviour in response to the radio broadcast since it emphasises the longer-term effects that media texts have upon audiences. Based on his research into television viewing, cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real.
11) Applying Hall's Reception Theory, what could be the preferred and oppositional readings of the original broadcast?
Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory is useful when considering how the audience for War of the Worlds interpreted the text (as either fact or fiction). He argues that audiences might read a media text in different ways. The dominant or preferred reading by the audience is the one intended by the creator of the text. However, a person might read it in an oppositional way depending upon factors such as their age, gender or background.
12) Do media products still retain the ability to fool audiences as it is suggested War of the Worlds did in 1938? Has the digital media landscape changed this?
The 1938 and 1949 radio broadcasts of War of the Worlds clearly had the power to deceive at least some of the listening audience, but could any media product create such an impact today? Are audiences too sophisticated and media-literate to be fooled by a similar stunt? In the late 1990s, and inspired by Orson Welles’ 1938 broadcast, two young filmmakers made the low budget film The Blair Witch Project. Supposedly made up ‘found footage’ shot by three student filmmakers who go missing while shooting a documentary about a local legend (the Blair Witch), the film sparked debate among audiences as to whether the footage was actually real. However, given that audiences received the text in a movie theatre (or on video and DVD) it is unlikely to have fooled the audience in quite the same way – or with the same authority – as a series of radio news bulletins.
Media Magazine article on War of the Worlds
Read this excellent article on War of the Worlds in Media Magazine. You can find it in our Media Magazine archive - issue 69, page 10. Answer the following questions:
1) What reasons are provided for why the audience may have been scared by the broadcast in 1938?
The Great Depression had made food and jobs scarce and tensions in Europe had almost reached boiling point, but through it all, the radio was a constant source of information, comfort, advice and entertainment. The radio had become a household essential, with four out of five homes owning one. People really trusted what they heard on their radios and, in this context, it is not surprising that some fell for the eerily realistic broadcast, even though the alleged explosions took place on Mars and the invaders were extraterrestrials.
2) How did newspapers present the story?
The press at the time spun the whole story very differently, something that media scholars now believe was done on purpose. The papers made a conscious decision to present it as a hoax’, inferring there was something malicious about the intentions of those making and broadcasting it, and were swift to point out the sinister power of the medium of radio itself.
3) How does the article describe the rise of radio?
Another industrial context was that of regulation of the radio. As a relatively new media form, there was still widespread scepticism about radio’s benefits and a lot of concern about its potential downsides. Just like the introduction of newer media today, older generations feared the corruption of the young by uncensored, unregulated radio content. Furthermore, the radio had a part to play in the rise of Adolf Hitler in Europe, and many were worried about how far radio’s influence could stretch.
4) What does the article say about regulation of radio in the 1930s?
The 1930s people were as worried about its effects and fearful of its influence as people are today with social media. Question knee-jerk reactions to anything you hear in the media and think of TWOTW. Taking a step back from the panic and applying media theory helps us to have a more considered reaction than the media outlets themselves produce; that’s why a critical and theoretical approach is important.
5) How does the article apply media theories to the WOTW? Give examples.
Stuart Hall, developed a theory of ‘reception’ that helps us understand the diverse ways audiences react. He said people make a judgement on any media text based on their experiences and understanding of the world. Applying this to TWOTW, you might argue that listeners will have come up with their own understanding of the show (and subsequent stories in the papers) as individuals, offering either dominant, negotiated or oppositional readings. This would explain why some loved the show and accepted it instantly as entertainment while others panicked and called the police.
6) Look at the box on page 13 of real newspaper headlines. Pick out two and write them here - you could use these in an exam answer.
‘Hysteria Sweeps Country as Radio Hoax Describes ‘Invasion’ by Mars Giants’
‘Radio Terror Brings Panic in All Areas; People Lose All Control’
Comments
Post a Comment