The Radio Effect

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War of the Worlds is an out of the box radio play that changed the world of mass communication forever and allowed the entire nation to see power of imagination and the unique power of radio over its audience. The creators of this nationwide hysteria were Orson Welles and the Mercury group. Orson Welles was a famous American actor, producer, director and radio broadcaster. In an effort to increase the shows audience, Orson Wells catered the idea of a Halloween public scare. The War of the Worlds radio play was a dramatization of H.G. Well’s novel The War of the worlds (1898 novel relating the story of an alien invasion on Earth) and performed as a scary Halloween episode on of the radio show Mercury Theater On The Air. The episode was aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) on October 30th, 1938. The first two thirds of the 62-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Orson Welles’s scripted act was so convincing that the broadcast caused hysteria throughout the nation as several listeners believed that the nation was actually being invaded by Martians in a seemingly unstoppable attack. Many people were terrified by the news, and they left their homes in panic and fled. The aftermath of the broadcast was so disastrous that even Welles and his team were shocked. This 1938, 62 minute broadcast truly changed the meaning of mass media and everybody came to realize the true potential and power of mass communication.
Orson Welles’s and his team had written the script for their radio play War of the Worlds, by taking author H.G. Well’s novel The War of the worlds (1898 novel relating the story ...

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...cation and allowed them to see how media can be manipulative. Analyzing the results of this piece of media, we can say that the War of the Worlds radio broadcast had revolutionized mass communication and started a new era where the media was forced to focus on the public’s demand. In the days following the adaptation, however, there was widespread outrage in the media. The program's news-bulletin format described as cruelly deceptive by newspapers (which were losing their revenue to the new radio shows) and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast and calls for regulation by the Federal Communications Commission. Overall, listening to this old radio show made me realize how dangerous one-way communication can be, hence if today’s media outlets want to be successful, they should try to be non-manipulative and honest to the public.

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