A Broadcast that Scared American Society

The night before Halloween of 1938 made history by a particular event happened on the radio. It was called The Night the Martians came. The listeners throughout United States and particularly in New York were terrorized during the broadcasting on CBS at 9:00 p.m. The broadcast transmitted the adaptation of a novel called The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. It was interpreted by Orson Welles, a great diffuser and filmmaker. It all started as a news flash, when the program of dance music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra was interrupted to report about several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars. It had been seen by recognized astronomers in USA. Then, it came a few minutes of music and again the program was broken up by the intervention of Dr. Pierson from Princeton Observatory with which people started to panic. After that the broadcast was continuously interrupted to inform about the arrival of the aliens to the Earth and their powerful machines that burned and killed to the people with a kind of lights beams. In the story, the narratives of assumptions important military men and the Secretary of State made people believe it was really real. But almost all of the listeners didnt hear the initial message that says it only was a play. It was a good example about how the media can influence in the mind of the people. When I heard the story I found it funny and I think it was ridiculous people believe that the broadcast was real. But after to analyze the situation, I consider at that time the radio had a lot of credibility as the television or internet has in our days. Therefore I dont always believe what the media tell us.

Name: Ana Garca Level: 8