CSP - Radio - War Of The Worlds
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?
2) When was it first broadcast and what is the popular myth regarding the reaction from the audience?
1939 “Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact.”
3) How did the New York Times report the reaction the next day?
“Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact.”
4) How did author Brad Schwartz describe the the broadcast and its reaction?
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?
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.
2) When was it first broadcast and what is the popular myth regarding the reaction from the audience?
1939 “Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact.”
3) How did the New York Times report the reaction the next day?
“Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact.”
4) How did author Brad Schwartz describe the the broadcast and its reaction?
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?
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?
WW2 waiting to happen
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?
So people knew its fake
9) Does War of the Worlds provide evidence to support the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory?
Yes
10) How might Gerbner's cultivation theory be applied to the broadcast?
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.
preferred: its all fake
oppositional: its all real and theres actually an alien invasion
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?
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?
Yes
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?
- ‘Radio Play Terrifies Nation;
- Hysteria Grips Folks Listening in Late’
- ‘Radio Fake Scares Nation’
- ‘Fake Radio War Stirs Terror’
- ‘Hysteria Sweeps Country as Radio Hoax Describes ‘Invasion’ by Mars Giants’
- ‘Radio Terror Brings Panic in All Areas; People Lose All Control’
2) How did newspapers present the story?
newspapers attacked TWOTW
3) How does the article describe the rise of radio?
radio is all powerful and ultimately dangerous
4) What does the article say about regulation of radio in the 1930s?
a lot of concerns and downsides
5) How does the article apply media theories to the WOTW? Give examples.
Reception theory: How the audience took the story - most took it as real and started panicking
Cultivation theory: People's thoughts and beliefs based on how long they've consuming and certain type of media - they been consuming updates on wars, food, depression.
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
Hysteria sweeps country as radio hoax describes invasion by mars giants
A/A* Extension tasks: Analysis and opinion questions
1) Why do you think the 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds has become such a significant moment in media history?
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?
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?
4) Has the digital media age made the Hypodermic Needle model more or less relevant? Why?
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.
6) Is Gerbner's Cultivation theory more or less valid today than it would have been in 1938? Why?
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