War of the Worlds, Orson Welles, and The Invasion from Mars

Consider this excerpt:

"The ability to confuse audiences en masse may have first become obvious as a result of one of the most infamous mistakes in history. It happened the day before Halloween, on Oct. 30, 1938,when millions of Americans tuned in to a popular radio program that featured plays directed by, and often starring, Orson Welles. The performance that evening was an adaptation of the science fiction novel The War of the Worlds, about a Martian invasion of the earth. But in adapting the book for a radio play, Welles made an important change: under his direction the play was written and performed so it would sound like a news broadcast about an invasion from Mars, a technique that, presumably, was intended to heighten the dramatic effect."

During class we listened to part of this 1938 radio broadcast. What were your reactions to this broadcast?

Consider the end of the article:

"More to the point, we live in a time in which the ability to create deceptive simulations, especially for television, has become essential to the exercise of power. And the inability to see through these deceptions has become a form of powerlessness. Those who let themselves be taken in by the multiple deceptions of politics, news, advertising and public relations, are doomed, like the more gullible members of the radio audience in 1938, to play a role in other people's dramas, while mistakenly believing that they are reacting to something genuine."

What do you think about this statement?

Other War of the Worlds Links:

http://www.war-of-the-worlds.org/

http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/

http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/wotw.html