Power of the Media
It was the eve of World War 11, October 1938. Mrs. Smith sat on her favorite rocking chair and closed her eyes. It was a long tiring day. She looked out of the window, it was dark- quite dark. The tension of the war hung in the air. Mrs. Smith was restless. Her husband William Smith and son William Smith junior were off to the border. She switched on the radio and a deep male voice floated in. It was an invasion alarm! what actually happened on that night was Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre presented a radio adaptation of H.G. Well’s novel ` war of the Worlds` on the air. Wells meant the programme to be a Halloween joke. But the beginning of the programme was missed by many listeners. The mistook it for news coverage of an actual invasion of the USA. Panic spread from one end of the country to the other. It drove many people into frenzy. They fled by car from the invaded area. A number of people died as a result of accidents or by suicide. People had believe the invasion because they hard it on the radio at a time of fear and also because the invasion was put across as a current news programme.
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