In 1938, Orsen Welles broadcasted a radio show and one of the episodes was titled The War of the Worlds. In the first part, something that was “like a jet blue plane” fell from the sky and landed in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey on a farm. They believed that it was a meteorite that struck the farm. This meteorite had the intensity of an earthquake. When this meteorite landed, it was to everyone’s surprise that in fact it was not a meteorite, it was a cylinder. This cylinder was metal and had a peculiar movement inside of it. This radio episode was obviously not real, the public thought something different.
This was right after the end of World War II. People were so worried about the war and the safety of their lives and their country. When the public heard about this meteorite hitting New Jersey and the possibility of it being aliens (because of the movement inside of the cylinder) everyone panicked. Newspapers claimed that people were escaping the area and their homes. Others claimed that they could see smoke and sparks from the object. This caused panic all of the country and no one knew what to do about it.
This radio episode started as being a harmless joke and was just for fun but what Orsen Welles did not know is the effect it would have on the innocent people that live in this country. His harmless joke caused a great frenzy across America. Apparently over 1 million people heard about this radio show and believed that this incident was true. Personally, I do not even know what I would do in a situation like this. I don’t blame the people for fleeing their homes and running away from the panic and horror this radio show caused. Apparently, the newspapers blew the whole situation out of proportion. People were now starting to get confused about the whole situation and did not know what to think at this point. I am sure that Welles had no idea that this would be the effect his joke radio episode would have on the innocent people of the United States.
Different people knew different facts about the whole incident and rumors started to circulate around the country. People were beginning to get more and more confused about the situation because of the rumors. One of these rumors was that the Germans were invading, not Martians. These people felt frustrated that they did not know what was going on. They felt scared and panicked that something could be going wrong in their country and lastly they felt unsafe. They felt unsafe in their own country because they did not know what to believe and did not know who to trust at this point.
Orsen Welles made a radio show that was almost like a psychological experiment. This experiment put panic into the lives of innocent Americans and made them scared for their lives. Confusion flooded the country as well as fright. Welles did not realize the amount of fright this joke would cause and he worried a lot of Americans in the process.
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