How did War of the Worlds demonstrate the power and influence of mass media in the 1930s and 40s?
War of the World is a radio broadcast that had a major effect on the audiences due to the circumstances in which it was broadcasted and its genre experimentation on the audience. During the 1930s and 40s, the world is on verge of World War II and North America was suffering from The Great Depression. American radio stations were increasingly cut into scheduled programmes to deliver news and updates about the war. The audiences’ fears regarding the invasion and international relations have made them extremely anxious and distressed – they became easily affected and swayed by any news and information given to them. Moreover, the 1930s and 40s were considered the 'Golden Age of Radio' - when radio was a relatively new mass media and became the primary, trusted source of information, particularly as Hitler's threat began to increase. Newspapers were its competitors, which explains how the newspapers tried to sensationalise the panic, proving to advertisers, and regulators, that radio management was irresponsible and not to be trusted. This could be linked to the Moral Panic theory by Stanley Cohen, in which someone or something is defined by the media as a threat to the values or interests of society. By repeatedly reporting and exaggerating the incident, newspapers reinforced the moral panic and created mass hysteria within society, making the audience believe that an alien invasion has taken place.
The radio broadcast’s massive impact could also be related to its genre experimentation. War of the Worlds was a fusion between radio documentary, drama and science fiction, a new hybrid genre that was unfamiliar at the time of the broadcast when audiences were used to clear boundaries between fact and fiction. The adaptation started as if it were a normal music show that was interrupted by news reports of an alien invasion, however, Orson Welles incorporated codes and conventions of news broadcasts and other genres to make the story believable. This includes the use of narrative (lots of narrative viewpoints, linear and chronological narrative which unfolds in 'real time’) and speech (reporter cuts into the broadcast with a ‘breaking news’ tone). The sound effects such as clock ticking, crowd noises and police sirens, as well as the music sections from an orchestra between the dialogues, added further realism to the broadcast. Additionally, many listeners had tuned in late and did not hear the disclaimer, thus were caught up by the realism of the adaptation, believing it to be an actual news story.
We could also link it to Hall’s Reception Theory, in which audiences may decode media products indifferently or not in the way the producers intended depending on their age, gender, cultural background, etc. Even though there are no solid proofs that it was Orson Welles’ intention of causing such chaos, the dominant, or preferred reading, could be the audience believing the ‘news’ of alien invasion and panicking over it. The oppositional reading would be the audience completely discarding the broadcast and not believing that there was an actual invasion. The negotiated reading would be the audience doubting the accuracy of the ‘news’ - a compromise between the dominant and oppositional reading. However, the dominant reading could also be the audience enjoying the radio drama and the unconventional way that Welles used to deliver, while the oppositional reading would be the audience rejecting the broadcast, disagreeing with its deceptive delivery. The negotiated reading, in this case, would be the audience finding the broadcast entertaining, but thinking that it is a bit misleading. This shows that media producers could have an influence on the audiences through their encoded messages and values, reinforcing the power of mass media.
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