War Of The Worlds

War of the Worlds: Blog tasks

Media Factsheet

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #176: CSP Radio - War of the Worlds. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets - you'll need to save the factsheet to USB or email it to yourself in order to complete this at home. Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What is the history and narrative behind War of the Worlds?

During the time period when it was released it was clearly made to sound very similar to news bulletins that audiences receive during attacks such as Germany invading and therefore it plays a key role of using conventions from those to match the conventions of WW2 attacks.

2) When was it first broadcast and what is the popular myth regarding the reaction from the audience?

That it was in fact real and that audiences were weary to go out there house due to the potential dangers of the aliens potentially attacking the people and therefore made audiences surf channels to gain more information of the attacks

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

They presented the attack similar to how they would present Germans attacks only with ET replacing the use of Germans.

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?

He used hybrid genres in order to heighten the effect that it had on audiences - he combined the conventions of radio broadcasting with the conventions of news and storyteling. By blurring these two together, it caused more people to believe it as it paralleled to texts that the audience were already familiar with.

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

In the run-up to the broadcast, scheduled radio reports were interrupted with emergency cut-ins, giving the audiences breaking news and updates surrounding Hitler's plans to invade and start the next world war.

7) Which company broadcast War of the Worlds in 1938?
CBS

8) Why might the newspaper industry have deliberately exaggerated the response to the broadcast?

The radio industry was relatively new at the time and newspapers were under threat as radio became a new competitor - they exaggerated the response to the broadcast in an attempt to create a panic surrounding the impact of the radio industry, and cause them to lose listeners.

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 could be applied to this text as some members of the audience believed that a real invasion was happening which is used as evidence to prove the audience as passive.

10) How might Gerbner's cultivation theory be applied to the broadcast?

Cultivation theory suggests that the more we consume a form of media, the more susceptible we become to the effects of it. This applies to the War of the Worlds broadcast, because the more people listened to the radio and familiarised themselves with the conventions of cut-ins, breaking news and journalistic-style reporting, the more predisposed they were to believing the hoax and recording.

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

Preferred reading - a broadcast designed to show the impact of the media and highlight the fact that you should not believe everything that you hear through the media without checking the facts and details yourself.

Oppositional reading - the broadcast was a way of taking advantage of the fears people already had, it was wrong to create such a believable hoax as it then went on to be replicated and cause the deaths of people in Quito Ecuador etc.

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?

Some media products can end up fooling audiences but audience do not remain passive in such a way to not recognise fake news or anything made up. This could be due to the digital convergence and the era of digitisation audiences now can research into things if it my not be true.

Analysis and opinion

1) Why do you think the 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds has become such a significant moment in media history?
I think it was such a significant moment because it was during such as controversial era with high tensions of war and some members of the audience believe the broadcast and some even went the further mile to call it an act of terrorism.

2) War of the Worlds feels like a 1938 version of 'fake news'. But which is the greater example of fake news - Orson Welles's use of radio conventions to create realism or the newspapers exaggerating the audience reaction to discredit radio?

I think that the newspapers exaggerating the audience reaction is more of an example of fake news. This is because even though both of these media texts were fake to some extent, the broadcast ultimately used the conventions of typical broadcast to create a realistic broadcast. The newspapers manipulated these conventions to exaggerate the effects in an attempt to encourage audiences to fear the impact of the radio.

3) Do you agree with the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory? If not, was there a point in history audiences were more susceptible to believing anything they saw or heard in the media?

I do agree with the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory; I think that audiences are positioned to consume media without necessarily thinking about the way it may have been mediated or manipulated by the producers to cause the reaction they want. 

4) Has the digital media age made the Hypodermic Needle model more or less relevant? Why?

I think that the digital age has made the Hypodermic Needle model less relevant in the 21st century. This is because more sources are available for different aspects of news and media content in general. Also, I think that as a result of growing up with digital media and an ever-changing media landscape, the younger audiences are more familiar with how to spot/handle fake news.

5) Do you agree with George Gerbner's Cultivation theory - that suggests exposure to the media has a gradual but significant effect on audience's views and beliefs? Give examples to support your argument.
I agree with Gerbner's cultivation theory. I think that this theory applies to a wide range of media products and texts. It is clearly applicable to the WOTW broadcast, because people believed the content of the radio broadcast as a result of it being similar to the format of news that they were used to - their regular consumption of the radio and news made them more susceptible to being fooled

6) Is Gerbner's Cultivation theory more or less valid today than it would have been in 1938? Why?

I think that Gerbner's Cultivation theory is more relevant today due to the fact that there are more forms of media. The increased usage and reliance on media texts and products has meant that our behaviour and beliefs can become more impacted by what we learn through these texts.