3 ms·
>Best we can do is trusting someone's memory, which is not really reliable. I disagree, we can do a lot better than just blindly believing, aka "trusting", any
by spaced-out 6y ago
>Best we can do is trusting someone's memory, which is not really reliable.
I disagree, we can do a lot better than just blindly believing, aka "trusting", any claim just because it was made by someone in the past.
First off, in a time when it was common to broadcast all kinds of shows on the radio, including variety shows, readings of novels, and plays/dramas, I find it rather dubious that a large number of people panicked and thought there's an actual alien invasion rather than just assuming it's another show.
It also wasn't the only thing on the radio at that moment. The linked article mentions that a far more popular comedy variety show was broadcasting at the same time, so again, a huge number of people just panicked and thought aliens were invading, even though they could turn their dial and see only one station was talking about it.
Finally, where are the first hand accounts? Where are the accounts of people who panicked, or who's family members, friends, or neighbors were panicking?
Given all of this, I think what's likely is that the broadcast raised some eyebrows at the time (some people perhaps called the police for more information), and was later blown out of proportion for publicity reasons.
- Izkata 6y ago> I find it rather dubious that a large number of people panicked and thought there's an actual alien invasion rather than just assuming it's another show. One thing might make a difference here, War of the Worlds was structured as a news broadcast rather than a narrative.
- mwcampbell 6y agoI found a recording [1], and it's clear to anyone who listened from the beginning that it was a radio drama. An announcer introduces Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air, and then after some intro music, Welles narrates a prologue. I suppose, though, that people joining the broadcast after that opening could have been fooled. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5uEA21-_Yo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5uEA21-_Yo
- JdeBP 6y agoThere are, interestingly, first hand accounts in the U.S. national archives of people who explicitly stated that they did not panic. * https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/fall/war-of-worlds.html https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/fall/war...
- Retric 6y agoI suspect most people didn’t, but even 1 in 50 listers would still be a lot of people flipping out.
- tharkun__ 6y agoWell yes but :) I remember back in Germany I turned on the TV one night, not knowing what was going to be on. What I heard was various news broadcasters talking about the Soviet union attacking West Germany. Tanks were rolling over the borders between East and West Germany, fighter jets in the air. All with accompanying video material of actual tanks rolling and all that and narrowly averting nukes being fired. All of it was actual news material, including the news anchors, nothing was fake recorded. I was quite confused for some time until I figured out that it was a "ZDF History" episode that specifically cut together various news broadcasts to make it look like they were remembering "that time when the East attacked the West" and that they were trying to show how easy it is to "change the past" this way or even make people think that this was actually going on, if this had been broadcast live in the evening news instead. And this is way before deep fakes.