Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News - A. Brad Schwartz
Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News - A. Brad Schwartz
Non-Fiction
Pages: 352
Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds is legendary, the radio play that was so realistic, so believable, that millions of listeners were convinced aliens were invading, thousands fleeing their homes in panic, besieging police stations, army bases, churches, newspaper offices. Whilst the truth is sadly not quite as dramatic as that, the story behind the radio dramatisation, the subsequent media over-inflation of the tale of mass hysteria and the psychological investigations into the power of radio as propaganda and truth-teller are every bit as interesting.
One only has to look at how easily information can become 'viral' on the internet, how quickly disinformation and hoaxes can spread, even in today's cynical, information-saturated world, to understand how such a panic could have been possible. 1930s America was a far less media-savvy world teetering on the brink of world war, so it hardly seems surprising that it wouldn't have taken much to set people off. This is certainly the explanation the media and history have accepted, and even the subsequent psychological investigation by Princeton academics seemed to take this line. It may seem surprising that academia would have paid such attention to a radio drama, but this was a time when dictators such as Hitler were mesmerizing entire populations, leading them blindly into war. Radio was seen as a master tool of propaganda, and the apparent ease with which otherwise intelligent listeners could be tipped into panic and hysteria was cause for intense interest.
The research done in the wake of The War of the Worlds broadcast exploring these issues came to have a profound effect on American media and culture. Some of these researchers became major figures in the emerging science of market research and opinion polling, the influence of media and advertising on decision making, and the commercialisation of media and politics. Schwartz obviously doesn't attribute all of this to Orson Welles and his radio play, but it certainly served as a catalyst for new discussions about the role of media as a vehicle for truth and information versus propaganda and disinformation.
I found this book a wonderfully interesting read, an exploration not just of the Orson Welles and the broadcast itself, but the history of radio in America, the psychology of propaganda, market research, the links between cultural awareness, education and 'critical ability'. The War of the Worlds' example is trotted out time and again whenever media gullibility or mass hysteria raises its head as an item of discussion, so it was fascinating to read just how much the truth about the broadcast and the public reaction to it has been distorted over time. In a way, this distortion of the truth has had far more of an impact on history and the media than the original broadcast ever did.
Non-Fiction
Pages: 352
Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds is legendary, the radio play that was so realistic, so believable, that millions of listeners were convinced aliens were invading, thousands fleeing their homes in panic, besieging police stations, army bases, churches, newspaper offices. Whilst the truth is sadly not quite as dramatic as that, the story behind the radio dramatisation, the subsequent media over-inflation of the tale of mass hysteria and the psychological investigations into the power of radio as propaganda and truth-teller are every bit as interesting.
One only has to look at how easily information can become 'viral' on the internet, how quickly disinformation and hoaxes can spread, even in today's cynical, information-saturated world, to understand how such a panic could have been possible. 1930s America was a far less media-savvy world teetering on the brink of world war, so it hardly seems surprising that it wouldn't have taken much to set people off. This is certainly the explanation the media and history have accepted, and even the subsequent psychological investigation by Princeton academics seemed to take this line. It may seem surprising that academia would have paid such attention to a radio drama, but this was a time when dictators such as Hitler were mesmerizing entire populations, leading them blindly into war. Radio was seen as a master tool of propaganda, and the apparent ease with which otherwise intelligent listeners could be tipped into panic and hysteria was cause for intense interest.
The research done in the wake of The War of the Worlds broadcast exploring these issues came to have a profound effect on American media and culture. Some of these researchers became major figures in the emerging science of market research and opinion polling, the influence of media and advertising on decision making, and the commercialisation of media and politics. Schwartz obviously doesn't attribute all of this to Orson Welles and his radio play, but it certainly served as a catalyst for new discussions about the role of media as a vehicle for truth and information versus propaganda and disinformation.
I found this book a wonderfully interesting read, an exploration not just of the Orson Welles and the broadcast itself, but the history of radio in America, the psychology of propaganda, market research, the links between cultural awareness, education and 'critical ability'. The War of the Worlds' example is trotted out time and again whenever media gullibility or mass hysteria raises its head as an item of discussion, so it was fascinating to read just how much the truth about the broadcast and the public reaction to it has been distorted over time. In a way, this distortion of the truth has had far more of an impact on history and the media than the original broadcast ever did.