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Orson Welles's 1938 radio play The War of the Worlds told American listeners, in the form of news bulletins, that Martians were landing in New Jersey. The story that it sent the country into mass panic was largely a newspaper creation; far fewer people panicked than the papers claimed.

CBS radio, 30 October 1938

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The story behind the card

The play, adapted from H. G. Wells's 1898 novel, went out on CBS the night before Halloween. A ratings survey that evening found only about 2 per cent of those asked were listening; most people had tuned to a popular comedy show on a rival network. Newspapers, which were losing advertising to radio, printed thousands of stories about mobs and suicides that were never confirmed. Some listeners were frightened and a few called the police, but there was no national stampede. A 1940 Princeton study, which estimated that more than a million people had been frightened, kept the legend alive. In 2013 the media historians Jefferson Pooley and Michael Socolow argued that the mass panic was largely a myth.

Türkçe oku
Orson Welles'in 1938'de yayımlanan radyo oyunu Dünyalar Savaşı, Marslıların New Jersey'e indiğini haber bültenleri biçiminde anlattı. Oyunun ülkeyi kitlesel paniğe sürüklediği hikâyesi büyük ölçüde gazetelerin eseriydi; panikleyenler, gazetelerin yazdığından çok daha azdı.
CBS radyosu, 30 Ekim 1938

H. G. Wells'in 1898 tarihli romanından uyarlanan oyun, CBS radyosunda Cadılar Bayramı'ndan önceki akşam yayımlandı. O akşam yapılan bir dinleyici araştırmasında, soru sorulanların yalnızca yüzde 2 kadarı oyunu dinliyordu; çoğunluk rakip kanaldaki popüler bir eğlence programını açmıştı. Reklam gelirini radyoya kaptıran gazeteler, hiçbiri doğrulanmayan kalabalıklar ve intiharlar hakkında binlerce haber bastı. Korkan dinleyiciler oldu, birkaçı polisi aradı; ama ülke çapında bir izdiham yaşanmadı. Princeton Üniversitesi'nin 1940'ta yayımladığı ve bir milyonu aşkın kişinin korktuğunu öne süren çalışma efsaneyi canlı tuttu. 2013'te medya tarihçileri Jefferson Pooley ve Michael Socolow, kitlesel paniğin büyük ölçüde bir efsane olduğunu savundu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)
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