The Martian Effect. the War of the Worlds Broadcast

In the reading Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin expands upon her analysis of Coca-Colas’ 1950 magazine advertisement, and brings many points to light about how the company uses cleverly crafted advertising tactics to appeal to a specific group of Americans. By clearly communicating her evidence to back up the analysis of the advertisement, Ruben composes a thoughtful and persuasive paper. For example, Rubin explains how simple details, such as the use of their slogan on the vending machine pictured which reads “Drink Coca-Cola - Work Refreshed”, and the placement of “Sprite Boy” in the ad, all work together to send a message that makes consumers want to buy their product. Consequently, because of the evidence presented in her writing, Rubin has crafted a paper that I find logical and persuasive.

The 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson’s Daisy Girl Ad sparked much excitement and emotion that still haunts us today. This ad was aired publically to the United States following the Cuban Missile Crises and during a time of political chaos from the upcoming 1964 Presidential Election. The advertisement itself was projected by Lyndon B. Johnson and his party at not only the voters of the United States, but also to Lyndon’s GOP opponent Barry Goldwater and his staff. I chose this ad because I remember watching it in the 8th grade and was intensely shocked when the three-year-old girl blew up in a cloud of atomic smoke. My emotions were on a draw string as I immediately was tugged from a happy state of emotion to a terrified one. This commercial by Lyndon and his staff conveyed one main purpose, and that was to entice the American voters to vote for him in the upcoming 1964 Election by using visual aspects, such as the young girl and nuclear bomb, and by incorporating the rhetorical appeal of pathos.

“Reports of suicides and panic-related deaths.” (Pooley, Socolow 5) These are some of the claims reported after the famous radio broadcast of the book The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells was conducted by Orson Welles on October 30th, 1938. It was set-up and produced to sound like a news broadcast that had sudden “interruptions.” The broadcast included many noises and sounds such as Martians landing and scientists “analyzing” them. While many newspapers claimed that the broadcast “stirred terror through the U.S.” (1) Less than 2% of everyone listening to their radios that evening heard it and even fewer believed it! There are many speculations as to why the broadcast is so famous. The so called “terror inducing” (2) broadcast is famous because people believed that it was real, newspapers made a big hype about it, and it was such a phenomenon that people believed it.

Ray Bradbury was an American author born on August 22, 1920 who died on June 5, 2012 at the age of 91. Bradbury was a prolific and beloved writer who wrote many novels considered today to be staples of the science fiction genre such as Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Martian Chronicles (www.biography.com). The Martian Chronicles is a collection of short stories Bradbury wrote over several years detailing the colonization of mars by humans. Present in this collection of stories are a number of themes portraying the weaknesses of mankind. In these stories are tales of corporate greed, mental illness, religious zealotry, gullible ignorance,

Have you ever read a book and watched the movie of it after and had that moment when

The Roaring Twenties was a time of change and innovation with the rise in new technology. Even though electricity was available to Americans before the 1920s only a small percentage of American household had electricity. By the height of the Roaring Twenties about two thirds of American households had electricity. With the rise of electricity came the popular household items such as the electric vacuum cleaner and the automatic washing machine. As the twenties proceeded the automobile because extremely popular. The young generation used the automobile to escape from the watchful eye of the older generations. Often, the automobile was used for scandalous meetings between lovers. Another innovation of the Roaring Twenties is film. Film became one of the main sources of entertainment for Americans during the 1920s. “By the mid-1920s movie theatres were selling 50 million tickets each week, a sum equal to roughly half the US population” (Zeitz). The movies theatre not only served as a source of entertainment, but the theaters also served as a classroom for the young generation. The young adults learned about love and sex is scandalous movies such as Flaming Youth. Movie theatres also served as a source of news and a place for propaganda and advertisements. Radio also experienced a vast expansion during the 1920s. Radio sparked a radical change the country’s awareness. News such as election results could be broadcasted live across the nation so that citizens could be more aware of what was going on in the country. Radio also provided a source of entertainment by broadcasting sporting events like the World Series. Radio contributed to liberalism by broadcasting “‘race music’, ‘hillbilly’ sounds, and ethnic recordings” into

Source 4 showed the troubles Mark Goodson had to face in the TV industry as a producer. He told a story of people getting fired because their names were in “Red Channels,” with that happening it could have had an impact on the TV station so somebody had to get fired. Goodson gives a great example of some things that were done after the meetings: “That was the last of that kind of meeting. Soon afterwards, CBS installed a clearance division. There wasn’t any discussion. We would just get the word—“Drop that person”—and that was supposed to be it” (229). This source gives us a clue of how some people were vulnerable to the anticommunist hysteria, they were forced to make irrational decisions or it could have affected their TV station.

Right before the Spanish American War or the Cuban War for Independence 1898, American public opinion was heavily influence by the “Yellow Press”. Sensationalized stories about “butcher” Weyler and the horrendous human conditions in concentration camps were published and spread throughout the U.S. For

The 1920’s, also called the “Roaring Twenties,” was a decade of change throughout the entire country. Although cultures among the United States vary, the wide spread of technology is something all regions of America can relate to. From East to West, changes in entertainment, sports, and radio were major contributions to the change of pop culture. The 1920’s was the beginning of a new era that shaped the way the United States forever viewed the media. A chain reaction was built throughout the twenties, making the country closer from coast to coast.

Kennedy, for example, keeps in a number of radio commercials in order to help preserve the same sort of unassuming relaxation felt by radio listeners before the shooting. Readers of the book reading about hokey, old-time products like “government inspected and graded” (9) Armour Star turkeys and “grease dissolving, stain removing, powerful” (17) Bab-O disarms them, making them feel more comfortable, as those listening about and watching the motorcade before the shooting probably felt. Things then quickly sprint toward “nothing but rumors and a wild scene of chaos” (20) as Goldsmith phases out the advertisements and focuses solely on the incoming news coverage, making the atmosphere direr. Goldsmith deliberately begins things fluffily and manicures the text as details of the assassination become known in order to turn up the intensity and emphasize the true disastrous nature of the American disaster. As Goldsmith includes, “The shock, uh, of an incident like this … can never be described”

The “working class” in the 1920s tried, many times, to gain the money they needed to pull themselves out of poverty, but many times it would not work due to spending. The ethic of being able to bring yourself out of poverty had been so effectively inculcated into society that many people without a job, without a farm, without a home, and without wealth blamed this on themselves. Many times, Blue-collar Americans had to make do with less costly “major” purchases such as radios and irons. While they could enjoy a taste of the decade's consumer culture, workers found themselves bombarded with advertising images for a range of products……. But which they simply could not afford (Bender and Walkowitz). Many desired this and would buy these products hoping to pull themselves out of poverty by lavishing in these “rich man” products.

Wilks 1 Stephanie Wilks His 1050 Sec 201 April 10, 2010 Roland Marchand and Kelly Schrum: Critical Analysis of Consumerism Post WW II American was a place full of optimism and fear. The American people had survived 20 years of depression and war to find new prosperity and an increase in mass production of goods and services that improved quality of life. This meant better times for Americans, but fears over the Cold War, threat of an evermore intrusive American government and loss of individualism existed as well. These high expectations and anxieties played a great deal into how people consumed. Eventually these factors combined with aggressive advertising marketing, with the help of media (mainly TV), led to the emergence of a whole new

This investigation is based on a combination of primary and secondary sources. The most valuable primary source is from “See It Now,” a series broadcasted by CBS, produced by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, and hosted by Murrow. The show ran from 1951-1958 and is regarded as a turning point in news broadcasting. The program had a reputation of being an honest and thoughtful presentation of current events. The episode titled “A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy” aired on March 9th, 1954. Murrow discussed the communist hunt launched by McCarthy and extensively used excerpts McCarthy’s speeches.

     The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury, is a science-fiction book and was written in 1946. This major work by Bradbury is a collection of short stories relating to Mars or Martians. Bradbury had a clear vision of the Mars in which these stories are set. His vision was one of a fantasy world from the Martians point of view. In this work, the humans from Earth are the aliens from outer space. Bradbury has won many awards including the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Aviation-Space Writers Association Award, the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement, and the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Bradbury supported his awards

For this week’s post I listened to Orson Welles and The Mercury Theater’s ‘War of the Worlds’ radio broadcast. The broadcast is one hour – long and what seems to be about an alien invasion in New Jersey. My first reaction to this post even before listening to the broadcast or reading articles was a little uneasy. You can say that I was a little anxious about this post due to my personal beliefs of not speaking about the unknown; however I will not be getting an F any time sooner. Anyways, I don’t listen to the radio unless it’s music related so you can surely understand why I would not be interested in a radio adaptation of a novel, especially one related with alien invasions. This broadcast, however left me wanting more even after being scared