Slashdot Mirror
Jordanian Mayor Angry Over "Alien Invasion" Prank
krou writes "Jordanian mayor Mohammed Mleihan has taken a dim view of local newspaper Al-Ghad's April Fools prank, which saw a front page story claiming that 'flying saucers flown by 3m (10ft) creatures had landed in the desert town of Jafr.' The paper claimed that communication networks had gone down, and people were fleeing the area. The mayor called the local security authorities, who combed the area, but they were unable to find any evidence of the aliens. Mr Mleihan is now considering suing because of the distress it caused to residents: 'Students didn't go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town's 13,000 residents. People were scared that aliens would attack them.'" I guess they've never heard of Orson Welles in Jordan.
The urban legend that sprang up, about ignorant people believing that the radio broadcast of War of the worlds was real, is one of the most pervasive and believed myths in modern times.
It was fuelled by the newspapers and magazines of the era, who didn't like radio much and were keen to portray it in a bad light.
As anyone who has heard the broadcast knows, the show was frequently interrupted by voice overs telling you that you were listening to a dramatisation.
No doubt though, there will be those on slashdot who will also continue to perpetuate this legend as historical fact.
Sure...
"Later studies suggested this panic was less widespread than newspapers suggested. During this period, many newspapers were concerned that radio, a new medium, would render the press obsolete. In addition, this was a time of yellow journalism, and as a result, journalists took this opportunity to demonstrate the dangers of broadcast by embellishing the story, and the panic that ensued, greatly." see Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future By Stanley J. Baran, Dennis K. Davis
Robert E. Bartholomew suggests that hundreds of thousands were frightened in some way, but notes that evidence of people taking action based on this fear is "scant" and "anecdotal".
See - Bartholomew, Robert E. (2001). Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics: A Study of Mass Psychogenic Illness and Social Delusion. Jefferson, North Carolina: Macfarland & Company. pp. 217ff.. ISBN 0-7864-0997-5.
And for a slightly more amusing take on the myth :
http://www.cracked.com/article_18487_6-ridiculous-history-myths-you-probably-think-are-true_p2.html
That enough citations for you?
It also ran without any commercial breaks which also made it seem more genuine to the people who tuned in late. The exaggerated level of panic is the only thing that was an urban legend.
H.G. Wells wrote the War of the Worlds.
Orson Wells did the radio play.
H. G. Wells wrote War of the Worlds, set in England. Orson Wells directed an episode of Mercury Theatre on the Air that was an adaptation of the story, set in New Jersey. Nobody ever thought the novel was a factual account. There were some people who thought the radio episode was actual news reporting and panicked.
What make you think that bit you cited is the entire definition of the word redundant? "exceeding what is necessary or normal" is entirely subjective. Most of us use the word by its objective meaning, repetitious, which is entirely objective and can be counted to a finite result.
This is correct, except it's spelled "Welles."
There are also a number of very good reason why people thought the radio episode was actual news reporting, outlined in this Radiolab episode.
There was a disclaimer at the beginning of the broadcast, which most people missed. There was a (fictitious) musical act "scheduled" for the show. The music was first interrupted to bring "breaking news" of "explosions seen on Mars." The next interruption reported that the explosions were rockets leaving the surface of mars, and a third said they were heading towards earth. Every time a report was finished, the music returned, leaving people to wonder. Every time there was another interruption, the whole thing gained more credibility.
Then they brought in actors portraying astronomers, government officials, and others, all of this offered up with the seriousness of the Hindenburg coverage--which Welles listed as one of his inspirations. One of the freakier parts that gave me chills even knowing it was fake is an on-scene reporter at the landing site. He sees something come out of the spacecraft, and it attacks the soldiers in front of him (with requisite gunfire and other sound effects). The reporter is emotionally distraught but still trying to report when suddenly---silence, he is cut off in mid-sentence. There's a good five or ten seconds of silence, which is almost unheard of on radio even today.
Welles knew what he was doing. He knew that War of the Worlds presented as originally told would be stale and get no listeners. He wanted to trick people, though he originally denied it, in order to teach them not to believe everything they see or hear from mass media. The lesson has obviously not been learned--people have pulled the same stunt successfully at least 3 times, discussed on Radiolab along with the occasionally disastrous results, and this makes a fourth.
Your brain is not a computer.