Wotw

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

Some of the history and narrative behind War of the Worlds is that Orson Welles had adapted it into a radio production. So when people were watching TV, it had been interrupted by a breaking news bulletin. Then people had started panicking because they thought an actual alien invasion was taking place. 


2) When was it first broadcast and what is the popular myth regarding the reaction from the audience?
It was first broadcasted on 30th of October 1938 on Halloween. This is key context as it had made the broadcast a bit more scarier and that has emphasised on how much the audience had believed that the invasion was quite real. 

3) How did the New York Times report the reaction the next day?
The way the New York Times reported the reaction the next day is 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.

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?
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?
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. 

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

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

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.

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?
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.