War of the Worlds Broadcast

The War of the Worlds broadcast fiasco is very interesting and coincidentally enough, I recently did a presentation on this in my media writing course. I presented about the magic bullet theory which states that the intended message from the media is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. The War of the Worlds broadcast is the example I used for this theory. Many people who were so consumed by the media took this broadcast seriously, though in the beginning of the drama show, the announcer stated that this was a fake news story. 

It was interesting to hear the difference, though, from radio back then compared today. When we turn on the radio today we either hear music or some sort of talk show. There are many commercials and advertisements in-between, also. Yet, during this broadcast and radio back then, it was more of stories and radio shows for families to sit down listen too and it was a group activity. There were no interruptions rather just a long story. 

I found it interesting how people were so affected by this. If this was broadcast today I believe that people might think it was a joke. Yet, media influences our society in different ways today whether it be a fake story written in a magazine or a joke a late night talk show host pulled and everyone believed.