War of the Worlds
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
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.
3) How did the New York Times report the reaction the next day?
The New York Times switchboard received 875 calls from concerned listeners wanting to know where they would be safe.Extract from the New York Times (31st October 1938):
destruction in New Jersey and New York....''
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.”
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 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, Welles blurred the boundaries between fact and fiction in a way that audiences had never experienced.
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.
9) Does War of the Worlds provide evidence to support the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory?
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. 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.
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. 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?
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. For example, a young male is likely to ‘read’ page three of The Sun as a bit of harmless fun (the preferred reading), whereas a female might regard it as offensive. Hall also suggests that readings of a media text might be negotiated. This is an acceptance of the preferred reading but modified in a way that reflects the audience’s own position, experiences and interests.
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?
Now with the growth and changes of technology it is much more difficult to fool people as there is a need for evidence and proof of the information. However, AI has also grown and become more popular which can easily be used to forge images and end up tricking people into believing fake news. Less people are likely to believe stuff straight off the internet of news now without enough research.
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?
It is true that many of the listeners tuning into the radio on night of October 30th, 1938 were scared –
some even really believed aliens had landed. Renegade director Orson Welles 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.
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.
3) How does the article describe the rise of radio?
4) What does the article say about regulation of radio in the 1930s?
There was still widespread skepticism 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.
5) How does the article apply media theories to the WOTW? Give examples.
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.
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’
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
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.
3) How did the New York Times report the reaction the next day?
The New York Times switchboard received 875 calls from concerned listeners wanting to know where they would be safe.
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 dramatization 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 anddestruction in New Jersey and New York....''
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.”
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 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, 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.
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.
7) Which company broadcast War of the Worlds in 1938?
War of the Worlds was broadcast by the CBS Radio network.
War of the Worlds was broadcast by the CBS Radio network.
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.
9) Does War of the Worlds provide evidence to support the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory?
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. 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.
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. 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?
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. For example, a young male is likely to ‘read’ page three of The Sun as a bit of harmless fun (the preferred reading), whereas a female might regard it as offensive. Hall also suggests that readings of a media text might be negotiated. This is an acceptance of the preferred reading but modified in a way that reflects the audience’s own position, experiences and interests.
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?
Now with the growth and changes of technology it is much more difficult to fool people as there is a need for evidence and proof of the information. However, AI has also grown and become more popular which can easily be used to forge images and end up tricking people into believing fake news. Less people are likely to believe stuff straight off the internet of news now without enough research.
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?
It is true that many of the listeners tuning into the radio on night of October 30th, 1938 were scared –
some even really believed aliens had landed. Renegade director Orson Welles 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.
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.
3) How does the article describe the rise of radio?
Since it came on the scene commercially in the 1920s, many feared radio would kill off the other main media industries at the time.
There was still widespread skepticism 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.
5) How does the article apply media theories to the WOTW? Give examples.
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.
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.
-‘Fake Radio War Stirs Terror’
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