Orson Welles: War of the Worlds

The 1938 broadcast of 'War of the Worlds', a reading of an H.G. Wells' fictional novel, caused fear and chaos to ensue after a misunderstanding that resulted in people believing aliens were invading. Since many people were listening to another radio station that overlapped with this one, they missed the beginning which revealed that it was only a reading of a fictional novel, and not being broadcast live. This event shows how the illustration of Stuart Hall's reception theory combined with political and historical events, such as the threat of war that was prevalent at the time, influences how people received the message. Because there was only old media sources such as radio and newspaper, many people couldn't rely on the technology that modern audiences now have access to. Additionally, this passive audience - a reference to both Stuart Hall's reception theory and the hypodermic needle model - left people panicking since this message was received directly to the audience with no opposition. It also links directly to the two step flow theory, through which people form their own opinions based on external influences. This was seen in the numerous complaints that people made despite many of them not having heard the initial broadcast, but reading it in newspapers. Furthermore, the amount of fear created in people was accelerated as a result of newspapers often tending to exaggerate as their largest competitors were radio stations.