War Of The World

Question 1

What is the genre of War of The World?

Answer 1

The show is a hybrid genre of news, documentary and science fiction

Question 2

What was the initial broadcast date?

Answer 2

October 30th- the night before Halloween in 1938

Question 3

How long was the radio show?

Answer 3

It had a 60 minute running time, which is conventional to radio shows

Question 4

Which theatre company made war of the worlds?

Answer 4

The Mercury Theatre on the Air

Question 5

Which station was War of The World broadcasted on?

Answer 5

CBS radio

Question 6

Who initially wrote war of the worlds and when was it published? What does this make the broadcast by being based on a book?

Answer 6

H G Wells 1898. The broadcast is a pastiche of the book

Question 7

Who was the man in charge of the War of the Worlds broadcast?

Answer 7

Orsen Wells

Question 8

What is a general summary of the plot of war of the worlds?

Answer 8

It tells the story of an extraterrestrial attack on earth, which leads to a war between the humans and the invaders (an alien race from Mars)

Question 9

What techniques were used throughout the broadcast to make it feel real?

Answer 9

• real place names e.g. Trenton, New Jersey
• dead air
• screaming / sirens
• music from a live orchestra
• interruptions from news bulletins, making it seem like a constantly evolving story
• the show didn’t play adverts until 30 minutes through

Question 10

How can Stuart Hall’s reception theory be applied to the 1938 audience?

Answer 10

Preferred reading: the adaption cleverly uses authentic-sounding news bulletins to make the story more immersive and exciting
Negotiated reading: they understand what Orson Wells was trying to do but may think it was inappropriate for the context of the time with the build up to World War Two
Oppositional reading: the broadcast needlessly uses authentic sounding news bulletins to panic the American public and cause mass hysteria. Could even be seen as dangerous and as having too much power as radio could overthrow democracy

Question 11

Context information about CBS?

Answer 11

Columbia Broadcasting company was one of only two national broadcasting companies in the US at the time- the other being NBC

Question 12

What effect did the broadcast have on the audience?

Answer 12

It created mass hysteria - we can refer to Stanley Cohen’s moral panic theory - as it was describes as “too realistic and frightening”, exploiting audience anxiety. It had verisimilitude and created a hyper reality

Question 13

What is evidence that it created mass hysteria?

Answer 13

The Trenton Police Department received over 2000 calls in less than 2 hours
NY Times switchboard received 875 calls wanting to know where people could find safety
One listener tried to sue for $50,000 claiming they had a nervous breakdown because of it
A man spent money he’d been saving for a pair of shoes on a train to escape the Martians. Welles reportedly paid for the shoes for him

Question 14

What is some social and economic context about the time which led to the audience effects that war of the worlds caused?

Answer 14

At the time, a world war was inevitable with radio networks frequently being interrupted to issue news bulletins
Great depression
One month earlier, Hitler signed the Munich agreement, annexing parts of Czech-Slovakia and so people that it was an invasion by the Germans

Question 14

How can cultivation theory be applied?

Answer 14

Audiences were familiar with frequent interruption, meaning they had been drip-fed with the idea that there was going to be a war. This made it reasonable to believe the fake broadcast was an attack from the Germans

Question 15

What was HG Wells response to the mass hysteria in an interview with Orson Wells?

Answer 15

“Have Americans never heard of Halloween?”

Question 16

What was the effect of not playing adverts until 30 minutes through?

Answer 16

-made it more serious
-meant the audience was hooked
-allowed for a cliff hanger half way through

Question 17

How can hypodermic needle theory be applied?

Answer 17

The audiences of 1930 were likely to be passive and believe what they heard because they were unfamiliar with new forms of media like radio. Therefore they are likely to be injected with the idea that aliens truly are invading
The product was something ahead of its time

Question 18

What proportion of people listening believed the broadcast to be real?

Answer 18

1 in 12

Question 19

What did Mercury theatre do to try and prevent mass hysteria occuring?

Answer 19

CBS radio carried out warnings at the start of the show, at 40 and at 45 minutes in that it was a theatrical production.
Announced as “an episode of The Mercury theatre on air”

Question 20

What is evidence that it didn’t create true mass hysteria?

Answer 20

• There are claims that ‘streets were nearly deserted that night’
• Any rumours that several had been treated for shock in hospital was false - claims one man died of a heart attack were never verified
• Not many people were listening (polls suggest only 2% of the population); many were listening to the highly popular ‘The Chase and Sanborn Hour’, a comedy variety show, broadcast on competing radio station NBC
• people were spreading and reinterpreting it to suit their own views of the world

Question 21

How may a modern audience interpret the product under Stuart Hall’s reception theory?

Answer 21

Preferred: creates excitement and offers an escape from reality - maybe even find it moderately scary
Negotiated: Understand the intentions but find it boring and old fashioned. They see why it could have been interpreted as scary
Oppositional: find it boring and cannot understand its entertainment value

Question 22

What are the two types of hysteria war of the worlds created?

Answer 22

• Initial panic of alien invasion
• once they realised it was fake, there was panic that radio’s propaganda could be so influential that a dictator could take over the radio, giving messages to people and this could destroy democracy

Question 23

What is the text seen as a commentary on?

Answer 23

British imperialism - Britain’s colonial invasion of Tasmania - and Victorian fear and prejudice. Therefore it could be discussed in relation to Paul Gilroy through subversion of civilisationism as the product looks to present the invaders as uncivilised.

Question 24

What is the 30s and 40s described as in terms of radio?

Answer 24

The golden age of radio

Question 25

Who was responsible for regulating the broadcast?

Answer 25

The federal communications commission

Question 26

How did the federal communications commission deal with the mass hysteria?

Answer 26

They received a letter of complaint from the City Manager of Trenton, requesting they immediately started an investigation and do everything possible to prevent a reoccurrence as the police had been totally overwhelmed for three hours (they did carry out the investigation)
Congress demanded laws be passed but FCC deemed it unnecessary
Welles made a very public apology

Question 27

What was radio like in Germany at the time?

Answer 27

Joseph Goebbels was appointed head of propaganda in Nazi Germany - he ensured broadcasts emphasised Nazi values, such as national pride, respect for Hitler and the superiority of the Aryan race

Question 28

Why can war of the worlds be considered a convergent product?

Answer 28

Hybridisation between theatre, radio drama, novelisation and news bulletins

Question 29

What was the newspapers response to War of The Worlds and why?

Answer 29

Radio had stolen advertising revenue from print during the depression, badly damaging the newspaper industry
The papers therefore used it as an opportunity to discredit radio as a news source. They sensationalised the mass hysteria to make the radio seem like they are irresponsible and cannot be trusted

Question 30

How many newspaper articles were there about War of the Worlds?

Answer 30

12,500 articles

Question 31

What is an example of newspaper headlines about War of the Worlds?

Answer 31

New York Times Headline read: “Radio listeners in panic, taking war drama as fact”

Question 32

What happened when a similar event happened in Ecuador?

Answer 32

February 1949, a Spanish translated version of the script was broadcast in Ecuador. It created panic, which once discovered was untrue, turned into a riot, which resulted in at least 7 deaths. Both the radio station and a local newspaper than had participated in the hoax were burnt down