Several of you have posted comments on your blogs (and on each others' blogs) that you did not understand the second article assigned for reading. This article is from Time magazine and was published in 1940.
In general, the writer noted that the fears people were experiencing affected their ability to identify a weekly program as entertainment rather than a real news event. The Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast adaptations of famous fictional novels ever week, including Bram Stoker's "Dracula," Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities," and Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Christo." You can see a list of the episodes on the homepage of The Mercury Theatre on the Air homepage.
The author quotes psychologist Dr. Hadley Cantril, who noted that some people had suffered from a lack of "critical ability." This term, critical ability, is described as the "natural instinct to question information before adopting it into your world view. The capacity to act on that instinct and draw reasonable conclusions during the meaning making process." (Urban Dictionary).
Dr. Cantril stated that some children recognized Orson Welles' voice from "The Shadow," a program that described the adventures of a crime fighter with psychic powers pretending to be a rich young man.
Why did people panic? One reason was a fear of the eventual start of World War II in Europe. This war did not start in one day; instead, it was a gradual series of events that caused the war. At this time, Great Britain and France allowed Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia. This delayed the war for another year. But people were very nervous about the possibility of war. During the broadcast of "War of the Worlds," some listeners who tuned in late thought that the invaders were Nazis.
I hope this information helps you understand the confusion the program caused. Orson Welles stated that he never wanted to frighten people, just entertain them.
Critical Ability. (2012). Urban Dictionary [website]. Retrieved from http://www.urbandictionary.com
No comments:
Post a Comment