War of the Worlds: Blog tasks

 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’ 1938 radio play is an adaption of H.G. Wells’ novel of the same name, first published in 1898. It tells the story of an alien invasion and the ensuing conflict between mankind and an extra terrestrial race from Mars. The text has been frequently interpreted as a commentary on British Imperialism and Victorian fear and prejudice. The book has been adapted for both radio and (several) films, including the 2005 version starring Tom Cruise. It was also famously turned into a best-selling musical album by Jeff Wayne in 1978 (recently updated by Gary Barlow as a touring stage musical).

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 thousand 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. Such hysteria was caused by Welles’ clever adaption of the story, reporting on the events through faux newscasts, and presenting the narrative in a way that has been described as “too realistic and frightening.” 

3) How did the New York Times report the reaction the next day?

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. Such hysteria was caused by Welles’ clever adaption of the story, reporting on the events through faux newscasts, and presenting the narrative in a way that has been described as “too realistic and frightening.” The following morning newspapers across the country revelled in the mass hysteria it had caused. The New York Times headline read, “Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact.”

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. But it’s even more important to understand how the press magnified and distorted those reactions, creating a story that terrified the nation all over again, so that we can recognise when the same thing happens today. Our news media still have a penchant for making us fear the wrong things, of inflating certain stories into false Armageddons, as they did with War of the Worlds.”

5) Why did Orson Welles use hybrid genres and pastiche and what effect might it have had on the audience?

His version of War of the Worlds reworks a Victorian narrative about an alien invasion (which he considered “boring”) and turns it into an exciting radio play through his use of pastiche. By borrowing the conventions of the radio newscast, he is able to create real moments of shock and awe, which almost certainly account for the strong reaction it received. 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.

6) How did world events in 1938 affect the way audiences interpreted the show?

In September 1938, one month prior to the plays broadcast, Hitler signed the Munich Agreement annexing portions of Czechoslovakia and creating the ‘Sudetenland’. Europe’s failed appeasement of Germany was viewed with much concern and for many it seemed that another world war was inevitable. At this time, both the radio networks, including CBS, frequently interrupted programmes to issue news bulletins with updates on the situation in Europe. As a result, audiences became familiar with such interruptions and were thus more accepting of Welles’ faux newscasts at the beginning of the play. Indeed, for the listeners, it didn’t sound like a play. This was further compounded by the fact they many listeners tuned into the broadcast five minutes after the start and would have missed the disclaimer. Instead what they would have heard were further interruptions, the convincing voices of experts and an eerie silence as a reporter’s words are cut off.

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. (Its competitor, NBC, had launched a year earlier.) CBS Radio continues to operate as a radio broadcaster and is part of the CBS Corporation which has interests in publishing and music as well as being a major news and television producer.

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 1 st1938. 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. So,  the  papers  seized  the  opportunity  presented  by  Welles’s programme, perhaps to discredit radio as a source of news. The newspaper industry sensationalised the panic to prove to advertisers, and regulators, that radio management was irresponsible and not to be trusted.” Similarly, in modern times, newspaper proprietors like Rupert Murdoch have seen their newspaper’s profits – and perhaps very their existence – threated by another new media form: the internet. New developments in technology have always threatened the existing media institutions and this was no different in the 1930s. 

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. It is questionable as to how far most of the audience were actually duped by the broadcast. As has been noted, those who ‘bought into’ the idea of an invasion, may well have been influenced by external factors such as the social and political context of the time. It was not impossible to believe that a foreign power was invading American soil in 1938.

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. Heavy viewers of TV are thought to be ‘cultivating’ attitudes that seem to believe that the world created by television is an accurate depiction of the real world. Applied to War of the Worlds it could be argued that an audience familiar with the frequent interruptions to radio shows over the weeks leading up to the broadcast did not question the faux invasion broadcasts during Welles’ production.

11) Applying Hall's Reception Theory, what could be the preferred and oppositional readings of the original broadcast?

Hall's Reception Theory is applicable to War of the Worlds and listeners will have come up with their own readings of the show (and subsequent stories in the papers) as individuals, offering either the possible preferred reading of the show's thoughtful message about not trusting everything you hear from the media, or an oppositional reading that Welles had intended to fool his audience. 

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? 

Renegade director Orson Welles (now most famous for directing and starring in the film Citizen Kane) chose to tell the story using realistic radio conventions – such as flash news bulletins, expert interviews and vox pops – and set it in contemporary New Jersey. He didn’t intentionally do it in order to to fool the public – the show even carried a disclaimer at the beginning and the end, making it clear that it was fiction. Nevertheless, for those who tuned in late, it seemed totally authentic and there was a bit of a scare: there were panicked phone calls to the authorities, angry calls to the CBS network, and some locals in the town in which the dramatisation was set reportedly roamed around with guns.

2) How did newspapers present the story? 

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. According to the thousands of stories about the show that fed off each other in the weeks that followed the broadcast, TWOTW had stirred up mass hysteria, panic, chaos, and stress, even some very extreme reactions: 'Radio Martian Attack Terrorizes U.S. Hearers; Attempted Suicides, Heart attacks, Exodus of Residents Reported’, read one headline from the time. ‘Listeners Faint...Pray...Prepare to Flee...’ is another example of the emotive writing the papers churned out in response to the broadcast.

3) How does the article describe the rise of radio? 

The radio brought news, music and more into people’s homes in an accessible, realistic and direct way; arguably there was no need to go and buy a newspaper or record if you could just switch on your radio. Plus, listeners would get to hear the real voices of the people making the news and access information more quickly than via a newspaper. Scholars have since acknowledged that this competition between the media forms definitely played a part in the speed and ferocity with which the newspapers attacked TWOTW. They were not only fighting for readers, but also advertisers, many of whom had deserted newspapers for radio.

4) What does the article say about regulation of radio in the 1930s? 

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. Suddenly, the newspapers caught wind of a radio play that seemed to have caused panic and disquiet among its listeners and they used that to support their claim that the radio was all-powerful and, ultimately, dangerous.

5) How does the article apply media theories to the WOTW? Give examples

Bandura’s work remains potent visual ‘proof ’ that the media can directly affect us. Another reason we believe that the media can affect what we do and think is George Gerbner’s ‘cultivation theory’, which says that the media can provoke certain responses from us if it repeats or cultivates a message often enough. To use the example in hand, Gerbner might say that TWOTW has become so legendary precisely thanks to repetition in the media.

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.

‘Radio Fake Scares Nation’

‘Fake Radio War Stirs Terror’