It appears that so far I’m yet to go a semester of my tertiary studies without studying or at the least acknowledging Welles’ War of the Worlds. No complaints here and I  guess that suggests it contains some important messages about media influence and construction. In listening to Radiolab’s deconstruction I was riveted to how events unfolded along discussion of the aftermath. The most fascinating aspect of the podcast wasn’t the radio play but the tension that existed between radio and the newspapers. The discussion of how Newspapers utilised the incident as metaphorical ‘smoking gun’ to try and cripple radio journalism. Newspaper published unreliable information hyping the panic the piece had created when it was broadcast. It was definitely refreshing to listen analysis of the event as opposed to the whole fiasco being used as a lazy example to demonstrate the hypodermic needle theory in discussion of the extent of media influence.

My interest was then only increased when discussion shifted to the incidents surrounding the repeated broadcasts across the globe. These events seem to be more indicative of the scripts ability to persuade others. I found it odd though I had never heard about any of these incidents, especially what transpired in Quito, considering the extensive panic and destruction it caused. This second incident seemed more malicious in its nature, which is kind of bizarre, but also frightening that content producers (re-users) could be so excited by inciting panic.

What I take from the events collectively is how interesting it is that in both incidents people either thought it were an enemy nation invading as opposed to extra-terrestrial intruders. In the Welles case Nazis were quickly the centre of the blame and in Quito Peru were feared to be the aggressors. It reveals People want to make sense of what they’re presented to form a tangible notion of reality. It is also evidence that the paranoia surrounding the Nazi regime and hostile neighbours infiltrates the average person’s psyche.