What about Media?

4.8.07

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed... Wait a minute! Someone's crawling out of the hollow top. Someone or... something. I can see peering out of that black hole two luminous disks . . are they eyes? It might be a face. It might be..."

- Carl Phillips, HG Wells' War of the Worlds.

“Green flash! They're spraying us with flame! Two thousand feet. Engines are giving out. No chance to release bombs. Only one thing left... drop on them, plane and all. We're diving on the first one. Now the engine's gone! Eight...”

-Commander, HG Wells' War of the Worlds.

Those were just some of the disturbing lines from the infamous broadcast of HG Wells, War of the Worlds, which made a big impact to the people living on that time.

To be able to answer the question: Would you have been affected by it like the other listeners? I made a little research about the things around the place on that particular day.

Running at the same time of his show is Chase & Sanborn, a more popular show than his.

“About 15 minutes into the Chase & Sanborn program the first comic sketch ended and a musical number began, and many listeners presumably began tuning around the dial at that point.. Welles knew the schedule of the Chase & Sanborn show, and scheduled the first report from Grover's Mill at the 12 minute mark to heighten the audience's confusion. As a result, some listeners happened upon the CBS broadcast at the exact point the Martians emerge from their spacecraft.”

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_%28radio%29

Orson Welles scared and made the people confused intentionally and I guess I would also be affected like the other people but not because of the “Martian” invasion but because of the Germans.

Why the Germans?

“The Radio Project also researched the 1938 Halloween broadcast of The War of the Worlds. They found that of the estimated 6 million people who heard this broadcast, 25% thought it was real. Most of the people who panicked did not think that it was an invasion from Mars that was occurring but rather one by the Germans.”

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Project

The broadcast was done on 1938. 1938 was the time when Adolf Hitler started to conquer different countries and the United States of America and Germany were not in good terms. There was a small fire of fear in their hearts that would ablaze anytime soon and because of this fear, they panicked.

Another reason why I wouldn't believe in the Martian Invasion is because I don't believe in Martians. The bible didn't say anything about God creating life elsewhere. I believe that God created light, darkness, water, ground, and more in five days, life on the sixth day and He rests on the seventh.

"By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He ceased from all the work of creating that He had done."

-Genesis 2:2-3

Before I end this entry, let me clarify my answers. If I would hear the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938 personally, I would definitely believe that there was an anomaly going on but not a Martian invasion but a German invasion.

Imagining that a mere broadcast made the people panicked is very fascinating. It just shows that the media before is just as influential as what media is today but the radio before was more powerful than the radio today.

| 9:28:00 AM