War Of The Worlds (Paper One) Flashcards
Genre
- Mixes science fiction with conventions of radio broadcasts = entertaining narrative
- Combining into a hybrid radio form was a great innovation, may have duped listeners to believing the bulletin and reports were a true account
Science Fiction
- Script follows alien machines landing on earth and obliterating human resistance. First part of play concludes with live report from a Manhattan rooftop detailing the invasion of NYC.
- After intermission, story shifts to a long monologue describing aftermath of war and how a simple pathogen destroyed the Martians because they had no immunity to terrestrial disease.
Radio Programming
Story of interplanetary warfare - typical of science fiction genre, but presented as a normal evening program:
- Routine report from ‘Government Weather Bureau’ about ‘slight atmospheric disturbance’.
- Entertained by music of ‘Ramon Raquello and his orchestra’ who play a tango from Park Plaza Hotel
- Special bulletin from ‘Intercontinental Radio News’ interrupts the music, meeting expectations of contemporary audience.
- By incorporating basic radio codes into script at start, clear the writers wanted to make it plausible. Signs represent reality.
Radio Programming (2)
Reinforces illusion by updating the og 1898 novel to 1930s America - sounds more acceptable.
Many places are fictional, bear close resemblance with real-life counterparts:
- Military launches assault from Langham Field instead of actual airforce base at Langley Field.
Altering reality is BAUDRILLARD’S SECOND PHASE OF SIMULATION because the signs are not faithful copies of og’s. Writers were warned against using the og names by legal department of CBC, worded abt threat of litigation.
Blurring of boundaries between truth and fiction = reason why audience believed it was true.
Public Reaction
New York Times:
- reported ‘a wave of mass hysteria seized thousands’ with adults requiring ‘medical treatment for shock and hysteria’.
- ‘Thousands of young persons’ phoned agencies on ‘advice on protection against raids’
Daily News:
- Headline ‘Fake Radio ‘War’ stirs terror through U.S.’
- during press conference, one reporter suggested it created ‘terror throughout the nation’
Public Reaction (2 - Hypodermic Needle)
HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY suggests a media text can have a powerful and immediate text on passive audience. WotW supports this because many terrified listeners ‘rushed out of their homes’ to escape the ‘gas raid’
Andrew Crisell, Professor of Broadcasting Studies, had a concept on Co-presence and why it has an impact on listeners. Radio is an intimate medium as presenters talk to us directly in our living rooms + private spaces.
Public Reaction (Cultivation Theory)
GERBNER’S research suggested heavy users of television become more susceptible to its messages, especially if it resonates with viewer.
- One army veteran said the radio play was ‘too realistic for comfort’
- Other New York resident was convinced ‘it was the McCoy’ when the ‘names and titles’ of different officials were already being familiar.
Public Reaction (Two-Step Flow Model)
TWO-STEP FLOW MODEL OF COMMUNICATION provides insight into the unfolding of panic.,
- ‘A throng of playgoers had rushed’ from a ‘theatre’ because ‘news of war had spread throughout the district’ and ‘many wanted a sight of the battle’.
Therefore, not everyone was listening to the radio. They had heard rumours of it.
At beginning of broadcast, signposts designated the programme as fiction:
- announcer introducers The Mercury Theatre on the Air, stating it’s an adaptation. Some might have missed the open minutes of show and not realised it’s fake.
- Mode of consumption could also explain lack of awareness. Not fully engaged listeners.
Context (Reception Theory)
RECEPTION THEORY - STUART HALL
- Orson Wells revealed the preferred reading of the text it’s ‘supposed to show the corrupt condition and decadent state of affairs in democracy.’
Welles exploited the audience’s fear of foreign power and weapons of mass destruction.
- One concerned citizen said ‘I just thought it was some Germans trying to gas us all but when the announcer kept calling them people, I thought they were just ignorant.’
- Since radio was a new form of mass communication, argued many listeners lacked the media literacy to understand WotW was a pastiche of its codes and conventions.
Welles argued the format was ‘not new’ and seem like an obvious trick to modern audiences, many listeners wouldn’t have realised it was just entertainment.
Context (Institution)
First aired by Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS) - one of the only two national broadcasters who were trusted by millions of listeners to deliver reliable and impartial news.
CBS frequently interrupted scheduled programmes to inform their listeners with the updates from Europe.
Weeks prior to WotW, they reported on Hitler’s continued occupation of Czechoslovakia and the inevitability of another global conflict.
Moral Panic?
Clearly had impact, but was it believed? Or scale of panic exaggerated by newspapers be used they wanted to defend their market share?
Rapid introduction of radio was a threat to the dominant position of newspapers.
- advertising was being used on radio and less on broadsheets and tabloids
- public no longer needed to wait a day for headlines
By sensationalising negative reactions of WotW, showed radio posed a danger to the harmony of American society and calling for greater regulation.
WotW was not sponsored by anyone. Welles was a talented and ambiguous amateur. After the broadcast, he was on the front of cover of New York’s tabloids and gaining notoriety.
