War Of The Worlds Analysis

Just imagine, you and your loved ones sitting together listening to the radio when suddenly there’s an alarming news bulletin about an alien invasion. Would you fall for such an obscene lie? No? Well 32 million people did.

A 40 year old science fiction novel, which was turned into a very realistic radio broadcast, wreaked havoc in the world. The broadcast was presented in such a way that it, if temporarily, caused people to believe that aliens truly had invaded planet Earth. The fact that the broadcast was a play was mentioned before it began, however most listeners were tuned in onto a ventriloquist act taking place that night and therefore missed this warning. So when the people tuned in to the War of the Worlds, where things were heating up, they panicked. Furthermore, with the broadcast’s almost perfect pacing, it didn’t really help the situation. The music cues were interrupted with news bulletins that, with a little tinkering of technology, were made awfully real and urgent.

They no longer had to wait for the evening paper, events of the day pouring into their living room. However, since the broadcast took place during the period of war, audiences listening to the radio were always tense, waiting for news bulletins to announce the depressing happenings in the war. So when people tuned in to War of the Worlds and heard about the battle between the aliens and armed forces they automatically presumed it was an attack from the Germans. Which again just made matters worse as one called the other and news about the German attack or alien invasion spread like wildfire and people did their best to make an