Orson Welles, War of the Worlds

There once was a time where there was no internet, no cell phones, and hardly any T.V., there was only the radio. It was what the families would gather around every evening to listen to the news updates or some sort of entertainment, whether it was live music or readings with crazy sounds affects! The radio was the newest and most popular form of communication when Orson Welles came out with his story, “War of the Worlds”.

Unlike the other stories being told on the radio at the time, “War of the Worlds” was not introduced nor was it advertised. When the story was aired many of the people listening to it really thought they were listening to the live music being played in between the “news” updates. The fact that people believed what they were hearing a bout an alien invasion to be true made a panic spread through the listeners. They began to actually think that earth was being invaded and that they were at risk.

Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” is unique in the fact that it was presented so realistically that people actually believed it to be true. The fact that the new was actually taken so seriously scared a lot of people and made them look at how much control the media really had. The idea that just because something is said on the radio it is automatically true was startling to the public.

After the panic and realizations made from Welles’ radio show, there were changes made to how certain shows and updates were broadcasted. People also weren’t as trusting to the idea that the radio was always telling the truth. It’s strange how one program could not only cause a mass hysteria, but also change broadcasting to how we have it today.