WOTW Flashcards
Radio in the 1930 - 1940
Families used to gather around the radio, similarly to how audiences now watch TV
Radio was a communication tool: Used for news updates
Considered the golden age of Radio, and was the sole provider of entertainment
Radio is a flexible medium; audiences can do other things while listening to the radio
BBC programming in 1930-1940
BBC provided a home-service : News focused ut had drama, music (needletime), information , debates and educational programming.
BBC third programming : High culture, intellictualism , important discussions , classical music.
Public Service Broadcast
- Is funded by the government and serves the public .
- Robin Hood Method : Retains profit due to funding by government,
- Public Remit : Inform,Educate,Entertain
1938 America
- Wall street crash and economic depression
-US concerned with communist expansion
-Beginning of WW2 and Germany had invaded Austria and was on it’s way to Czech
Intimate Medium
Audiences must create images through sound only.This is manipulated in WOTW as there is a lots of noises in the broadcast.There was also the smart use of silence to create a feeling of suspense and fear.
Boundary Rituals
Sound that is used to frame the content either at the beginning or end of a broadcast e.g. to signify a switch from fictional play to a news bulletin.
Interrupted the broadcast and breaks the sense of verisimilitude and creates a sense of unease : Interruptions of broadcasts were done before due to broadcasts on war.
Radio as a new medium
People had a difficult time trusting radio as it was new.This questioned its integrity and it capability to produce misinformation and abuse.
Stanley Cohen : MORAL PANIC
Application to WOTW
Moral panic occurs when ‘condition, person or group of people emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and intrests.Creates mass hysteria.
Mass media is the primary source of the public’s knowledge about deviance and abnormalities and is used to advocated normalcy.
- Newspapers created a moral panic on the broadcast, in attempting to paint it as a dangerous and untrustworthy
= this was hyperbolized and didnt create as much drama as it presented out to be.Done to assert themselves high in the media industry. 2% of USA was actually watching it, therefore didnt create that much harm, or little harm.
WOTW CONTEXT
- Broadcasted in 1938 by Columbia Broadcasting
System (CBS) and was only one of the two radio
broadcasters at the time in America - Based on a novel called war of the worlds
- Preformed by orson orwell , a famous presenter and
playwright at the time - by Columbia Broadcasting
System (CBS) and was only one of the two radio
broadcasters at the time in America. - Was also broadcasted in the Uk through the BBC : fits their remit : is entertaining.
CBS regulation
Was a government controlled body.
CBS made Orson Wells and it gave warnings that it was a fictional show at the start and again at 40 and 55 minutes into the broadcast.
Frank Santon (President of CBS) claimed that most people didn’t hear the show.
Two Step Flow and its application to WOTW
Rather then taking the media at face value,people have their own interpretations to it according to opinion leaders.
News papers was a trusted media source = opnion leaders
This is difficult to prove as there have could’ve been other opinion leaders , like Orson welles stated that it was fake several times.
Hypodermic Syringe theory and its application to WOTW
Audiences passively absorb media.
Audiences would have been influenced by the context of the time, not solely what they heard on the broadcast.
Audiences were positioned to believe but majority of the audiences did react dramatically to WOTW,opposing the idea that all audiences think the same.
Mean world syndrome
News present the world in an unnecessary negative light, and create a dystopian depiction of the world rather than what it actually is.
Creates more profit of the news is negative in order to create a sense of need to get the information due to its severity.Important in a high tension time where war was lurking.
Ideas of desensitisation
A psychological process which suggests that audiences who are regularly exposed to acts of violence through TV programmes,films and video games are less likely to feel empathy or concern.
