AQA A-Level Media Studies - War Of The Worlds

Context of radio

The “golden age”

Was brand new at the time - audiences were inexperienced with certain genre conventions

2 popular radio stations - CBS and NBC were competitors

Radio went from 1%-15% of total US advertising spending

WOTW context

Based on novel by H.G Wells and adapted for radio and the contemporary American audience (e.g. American locations, modern tech etc.)

Broadcasted by CBS

Aired on the 30th of October 1938 - day before Halloween for more listeners (hesmondhalgh)

Political context

Radio was more accessible due to illiterate audiences

Nazi Germany was forming and there were threats of war - Hitler recently invading Czechslovakia fueling further global fears

Techniques to create believability

Hybrid of documentary and drama conventions

News bulletin-esque announcements about explosions

Interviews and name mentions of official sounding names/locations - “Government meterological Bureau” and “General Montgomery Smith”

Diagetic sound - background explosions and screams and microphone too far away/close to interviewee

Limited commercial breaks except for one in the middle

Mentions of the war scare at the start of the broadcast during news bulletin sections

Postmodernism - Baudrillard

Hyperreality - has elements of reality (documentary conventions like news bulletin and interviewers) but is ultimately a simulacrum representation (aliens invading from mars)

You could also argue that it was never the intention to go as far as hyperrreality - clear announcements in the beginning/middle/end

Why audiences may have mistaken it for reality?

NBC was broadcasting it’s popular ‘Chase and Sandbourne’ show and audiences may have tuned into CBS during an adbreak on NBC and so would have limited understanding of the context in WOTW. (could also be argued that not many people tuned into CBS so not nearly as many people would have heard WOTW in the first place)

Another reason is a moral panic caused by the newspapers

Stanley Cohen - Moral Panic

Contemporary audiences had limited experience and knowledge with radio - let alone one combining conventions of fiction and non-fiction

Stage 1: Small fears around radio caused by a small portion of the audience

Stage 2: WOTW becomes an identifiable object as a scapegoat for the media to fuel public concern of radio

Stage 3: Publications exaggerate the impact the broadcast had on audiences

Stage 4: Federal authorities (FCC - Federal Communications Comission) intervene to regulate

Stage 5: Leads to changes in regulation across the industry

Why did news publications start a moral panic?

One could argue they had a commercial objective to create distrust around radio. More advertisement money spent on radio adverts and less being spent on newspapers - wanted to get their audience and money back

Lazarsfeld - Two-Step Flow

Due to audience’s inexperience with radio - newspapers would have been a more trusted source than radio. Are likely to have confirmation bias and be more likely to trust sources that allign with their beliefs.

e.g. New York Times published articles about WOTW and the supposed fears it caused

CBS was also one of 2 trusted news providers through radio - audiences might have believed the broadcast to be real as they are normally trusted to provide news

Stuart Hall - Reception theory

How products are interpreted are dependent on the audiences circumstances and identity, and influencers of the time had limited knowledge of media (hence the inaccurate ‘Hypodermic Needle’ model)

The formatting of drama and reality was unfamiliar to the audience and so some may have taken an oppositional reading and believed it was real

Gerbner - Cultivation theory

Radio being in it’s ‘golden age’ and height of popularity as well as it’s ease of access to listen to wherever you are in your home (e.g. living rooms) - Gerbner would suggest that this heavy usage makes audiences more susceptible to radio’s messages

Also if the radio was in the background some audiences may have missed the announcements and only heard the news bulletin sections

Hesmondhalgh - Cultural Industries

WOTW aired on October 30th and was intended to be a halloween themed broadcast according to Welles at the end of the broadacast - by airing on the 30th instead of 31st it ensured that more people would have listened to the broadcast as audiences would have spent the 31st celebrating Halloween rather than listening.