War Of The Worlds Analysis

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War of the Worlds 1 The War of the Worlds was a book that was written by Orson Wells, that was performed on a live radio station. Many people thought that what they were hearing was true and that there really was an alien invasion. Although aliens attacking is a far-fetched idea, people still believed it, because of the cultural traditions that were in place. Before this time, everything that was written in the newspapers or heard on the radio was supposed to be true. This may have happened over 75 years ago, but this event can still relate to our current culture. Because of our media options today, this could happen again. There were laws and boundaries that were in place during the time of 1938 that gave some people a reason to believe …show more content…

This I believe played on a lot of cultural traditions and assumptions at that time. For starters, it was broadcasted the night before Halloween, so Hallows Eve. The listeners would have already been in the mind set of “creepy or scary” things. Second, the broadcast was altered to allow it to be more realistic like an actual radio news broadcast. On top of altering the broadcast to include pieces of news, you had fake news bulletins like “huge flaming object.” During the broadcast Wells also managed to portray very vivid descriptions and detailed images to the listeners. Such as this portion of the broadcast “Good heavens, something's wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake… They look like tentacles to me. There, I can see the thing's body. It's large, large as a bear and it glistens like wet leather... The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate… It seems weighed down by… possibly gravity or something. The thing's raising up...” Wells used a lot of detail to give the viewer the idea that maybe this was actually real and not just a fictional play broadcasting on air. You also had in the mix cut parts of just music and then cutting back into the play. With very distinctive …show more content…

During that time, it was start of an age where the power of stimulation was becoming more widely used. Manipulation was used to make the broadcast seem more realistic and nonfictional. The present culture traditions and assumptions also thrive on manipulation and the power of stimulation. One of the most common examples of this was in the beginning of the 1990s when lip syncing became a huge sensation. Before that, around the 1950s, you had televised game shows that stimulated people on their ability to win things. We still have this going on in our society today and we will continue to have things like this happen in the future. The only difference now would be the form of the media that it comes

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