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War of the Worlds
While Belgium is getting over their 'War of the worlds', the original War of the Worlds is quite a shocking radio emission, dating 1938.
Via Corneel: surely read his post, which is really interesting:
This hoax reminded me of the alien invasion broadcast in 1938 that caused a widespread reaction among the millions of listeners. The radio-adaptation was extremely detailed, just like the RTBF hoax this week.
Many people have heard of this incident but only a few have actually listened to the 55 minute play. Being a sci-fi fanatic I think the radio adaptation of War of the Worlds is a masterpiece. Here is a link to a downloadable mp3 (via). Take a bottle of wine, dim the lights and listen to it.
While you listen try to keep in mind that the people in those days were genuinely frightened. They were living in a time where tension and anxiety were building up (it was just before WW2). The strange thing is that they would believe anything (an alien invasion???).
We are also living in a time of anxiety. Beware of what you believe!
And the question in the end is certainly:
'How reliable is the “official news”? Can we trust them? Are they too powerful? How will we get our reliable news in the future?'
And how will be teach our children the message 'be aware.'
Technorati Tags: journalism, war of the worlds
Posted on December 16, 2006
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Comments (2)
Comments
I believe they ran it in Spain or someplace a couple of decades ago (definately after WW2), and people went berserk again. Funny.
Posted by Charlo | December 17, 2006 1:34 AMWell, if all those people that overreacted would have just changed channel to the Flemish posts, they would have noticed that everybody in Flanders was still watching the soccer game in stead of revolting.
Posted by iphi | December 17, 2006 2:35 AM