On the show, we simulated exactly what would happen if the world were invaded. We began with little music, then an announcer interrupted to say, “Excuse me, we interrupt this program… Jersey City has just fallen.” We repeated interruptions carefully, organ music included, to make it realistic. We had no idea how effective it would be. Midway, we noticed many police in the control room—our broadcast had become a national event. When the show ended, Walter Winchell, on a rival network, condemned the panic, stating clearly, “America has not fallen.” Weeks later, Red Cross workers and Quakers in the Black Hills of Dakota were still persuading frightened people to go home—there had been no Martians. Years later, we staged another script interruption, this time claiming “Pearl Harbor has just been attacked.” But the audience didn’t believe it—they said, “it was funny once, but not a second time.” We had provoked the public because radio was so trusted; people believed everything it delivered. Our broadcast was intended as an assault on the medium’s credibility, to remind listeners not to swallow opinions pre-digested by radio—and later television.
Vocabulary:
• credibility (noun): the quality of being trusted or believed. Context: the show as an “assault on the credibility” of radio.
• invaded (verb, past): entered forcefully or aggressively. Context: describing a fictional world invasion.
• interrupted (verb, past): stopped briefly in the middle. Context: announcer interrupting the show.
• rival (adj/noun): competing with another; a competitor. Context: Walter Winchell is a rival broadcaster.
• persuading (verb, gerund): convincing someone to do something. Context: persuading people to leave the mountains.
• panic (noun): sudden uncontrollable fear. Context: listeners panicked when they believed the broadcast.
• assault (noun): a strong attack. Context: an assault on trust/credibility.
• pre-digested (adj): simplified to the point of losing nuance. Context: media opinions delivered without critical thinking.
Source: The Guardian News