Broadcast hysteria: Orson Welles's 'War of the Worlds' and the art of fake news

Study by A. Brad Schwartz of the aftermath and implications of Orson Welles's 30 October 1938 radio broadcast, apparently a news report of a Martian invasion but in reality Welles's adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel 'The War of the Worlds.' Schwartz challenges the received wisdom that the broadcast created mass panic but also shows how it prompted widespread debate about the power of radio while the prevailing atmosphere of international tension fostered a climate in which broadcasters could produce shared live national experiences. Schwartz additionally looks at Welles's rapid rise through the medium of the play's production and at how the origins of 'fake news' may be traced back to the show.

Part of the Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Collection