The War of the Worlds Broadcast by Orson Welles which was an episode of the American radio series Mercury Theater on the Air aired on October 30, 1938. It was preformed as a Halloween special and was 60 minutes long. The act included fake news bulletins, which actually sounded quite real and aired without any commercials which greatly added to the panic because for 60 straight minutes unless you listened from the beginning you didn’t know what was going on.
Personally, I can not even imagine the full extent of what the people who heard this radio broadcast were thinking or feeling. To have there only source of immediate news be via the radio with just sounds and no images I would be utterly terrified after hearing this broadcast. In addition, during a time period where there was less knowledge about space there was a greater chance of panic. It has also been said that because this all happened shortly before World War II, and there was already panic as a result this only added to peoples outcries. Some even stated that they believed the Martian attack to really be a German attack. Another factor that played a key role in the elevated fear from this broadcast was the fact that listeners could tune in at different times, therefore they would not have the background of the broadcast and did not realize that it was merely an act. As a result of all this and what I feel was poor execution, there was hysteria that greatly impacted many people.
What happened in the aftermath of the broadcast was what I feel exactly what would have happened had it been real, because for many they did indeed believe it to be real. Anxiety swept over the people, and like anyone would most likely do if faced with this scenario, they began to gather up there things and flee to safety. Families were uprooted and this must have become a very traumatizing experience for the children it affected. Things even got to the point where people believed they smelt poison gas and saw flashes of light in the distance. It is really incredible to me how far ones imagination can carry them during a state of panic. The area that was most greatly affected by this incident was New Jersey
CBS the station on which the program was broadcasted got a good deal of heat for everything, although Welles was not punished at all. CBS supposedly said that they would not longer use the phrase “We interrupt this program” again because of the seriousness the phrase has. However, even today this phrase is used, I feel though with all our other outlets of media today it is very unlikely for us to be fooled. Overall, I feel the outcome of this incident made people think twice about what they were hearing, but also showed the media how much influence they could actually have over their listeners.
