War of the Worlds - RadioLab (listened, country)

[oeccscclhjhn]

http://www.radiolab.org/story/91622-war-of-the-worlds/

Fool me once - 1938, Orson Wells and his Mercury Theater.

Fool me twice? Quito, Ecuador (1949)

http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/war_worlds_quito.htm

by the end of that evening, the local newspaper office (home to the radio station) would be a smouldering ruin and at least six people dead at the hands of an enraged mob.

Three times? Buffalo, New York:

The War of the Worlds (radio 1968)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War...ds_(radio_1968)

Despite an exhaustive advertising campaign by WKBW for this show, several people were still convinced upon listening to it that the events unfolding in the show were genuine. Among those fooled included a local newspaper, several small-town police officers and even the Canadian military, which dispatched troops to the Peace Bridge.

[Bo]

I listened to an updated version of this Radiolab show today. It pointed out that there is historical dispute on whether the show truly caused widespread panic. It apparently only had a 2 rating by today's standards, which means that only 2 percent of the households in the country that could listen to it were listening to it. CBS surveyed 5,000 people the next day and did not find anyone who was fooled by it.

The historian they interviewed said that the controversy was being stirred up quite deliberately by newspapers, whose owners had a vested interest in trying to discredit the public from viewing radio as a credible, trustworthy medium.

[oeccscclhjhn]

Originally Posted by Bo

I listened to an updated version of this Radiolab show today. It pointed out that there is historical dispute on whether the show truly caused widespread panic. It apparently only had a 2 rating by today's standards, which means that only 2 percent of the households in the country that could listen to it were listening to it. CBS surveyed 5,000 people the next day and did not find anyone who was fooled by it.

The historian they interviewed said that the controversy was being stirred up quite deliberately by newspapers, whose owners had a vested interest in trying to discredit the public from viewing radio as a credible, trustworthy medium.

Yup. History refers to ratings taken 6 weeks later, rather than that night, and the day after. But the next two incidents clearly overtake the 1938 effect on the population - especially the 1949 Ecuador airing. Even Canada mobilized forces in response to the 1968 New York radio broadcast. Amazing.