If you'd like to hear the complete broadcast, click on the newspaper photo below.
In that era - before the Internet, instant messaging, cell phones, and TV coverage - people relied on radio broadcasts and newspaper stories for information. It's not hard to understand how this broadcast might have freaked out some folks. I have to wonder: could something like this happen today?
Information on this event as well as short clips and commentary, compiled by Smithsonian Magazine, can be found here: American Experience - War of the Worlds
Interesting question! On one hand, we have access to so much information so quickly. But what would happen if the wrong information got passed around a million times faster?
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing, Jacquie. With so much disinformation out there, I don't know what to believe half the time. Recently I heard a snippet on the radio (National Public Radio, no less!) saying that Mylie Cyrus had committed suicide. Turned out to be a hoax, of course.
DeleteIt could, under the right circumstances. When I was away at college, someone played that old broadcast for a group of students who thought it was coming over the radio. They were crying and wanting to call parents, etc. But then that was, er, well, a few years ago!
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