We may think and indeed firmly believe that we are sophisticated, savvy and streetwise and not at all susceptible to being scammed, conned or just plain ripped off.
It is a bit of a false sense of security brought about by our ability to instantly access news, information and events.
If something is reported and broadcast, for example, we tend to accept it as the truth. A viral message dissipated through the social networks can be seen by multitudes and then spread exponentially through friends and contacts.
It may have taken many years in the snail mail days for an urban myth to become established but not today. Andy Warhol in 1968 coined the phrase that in the future everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes. In the UK the equivalent sentiment is usually expressed as a "nine day wonder". In the same way under the great host of media at our fingertips some bit of intial gossip, hearsay, speculation or just downright fabrication can immediately attain the status of a legend in a matter of a few key strokes.
Imagine back to the era when the transmission of a message involved a foot or mounted messenger, smoke signals, semaphore flags, a carrier pigeon, telegraphic communication, telephone and even up until the modern fax machine. These in themselves and in their halcyon periods quite progressive means of relaying information pale into a dusty museum exhibit when set up against what we now have at our disposal in a handset, tablet or laptop.
It is not too long ago that the population, wanting some idea of what was going on in the wider world, would flock to a picture house to see the newsreels and even then the images and stories would already be quite out of date.
The emergence of broadcast radio must have seemed like a marvel of science being available for the benefit of the masses but equally and in the wrong hands a tool of propaganda, misinformation and for the spreading of fear and insecurity.
Take the 1938 airing by Orson Welles of The War of The Worlds. It has gone down in the history of broadcasting as perhaps the most legendary piece of drama in that it was believed to be a true account of an actual Martian invasion of the United States.
It was a first in many respects but also in a society with underlying and strong concerns and suspicions about modern life.
The original broadcast is 75 years old this coming Halloween, the 30th October.
In the same vein as a barely credible announcement every April 1st there will be of course many who would say that they would never be fooled by such an obvious and spooky stunt on All Hallows Eve.
However, the listening public were off guard on that particualr night and the matter of fact and unemotional voice of the master of a dramatic moment only served to make them unwilling and terrified witnesses and participants.
Even now in the century following ,the conspiracy theorists are very much active about the whole event.
One internet based organisation is of the idea that an actual alien invasion was attempted on that very night and in the small town of Grover's Mill in which the first part of the story was based and that the whole Welles thing was a smokescreen for a pitch battle between the townsfolk and the little green men which resulted in a strategic retreat by the inhabitants of the Red Planet.
The production by The Mercury Theatre, Welles' own repertory company was skillfully structured between supposed live on the ground first hand accounts of lights, the impact of what was thought to be a meteorite and explosions interspersed with a big band sound from a fictitious New York hotel.
In its ordinariness it was utterly believable.
The story is that a group of concerned academics from the geology department of Princeton University immediately set off for Grovers Mill upon hearing the news. They returned empty handed but without the access to an inter war forerunner of Facebook or Twitter they were not able to report what seemed to be a hoax.
The Police records of the night do include numerous panicky phone calls with the offering of information by the public on the number and location of falling meteors, apparent dead bodies in the streets, gas attacks, fires and military activity. The residents of New Jersey genuinely believed that they were on the front line of the alien insurrection.
In the inevitable assessment of the series of events it was estimated that the nationwide broadcast was heard by 6 million people and over a million had been affected by anxiety and alarm.
Actual accounts of the night include attempted evacuations by whole families in their motor cars, the gung ho attitude of armed groups ready to defend their homes and people in the streets anxiously watching the skies.
The power of a message delivered by radio was more than ably demonstrated by Welles and his actors.
Ripples of panic spread further as listeners, channel hopping between stations seeking their evening amusement , tuned into the dramatic account of Martian machines and death rays striding across the Hudson River.
Disclaimers had been given before the broadcast about realistic content but these had not obviously been taken on board. Proclamations of the end of the world were made in bars and churches.
In 1938 there was already cause for concern over conflict and upheaval what with the unrest in Europe and the seemingly unchecked rise of fascism. The measured tones of the voices reporting the pitch battle between Man and Invaders were what the public had become accustomed to huddled around their wireless sets in the comfort of their own homes.
The Halloween fright night was a masterful display by Orson Welles although he did appear to the press the following day as apologetic and embarrassed by his new found infamy. As for Grover's Mill, nothing much happened to capitalise on the brief moment of being the epicentre of the night apart from the occasional pub quiz question on the subject.
Could the same hype and horror be manufactured through todays far reaching and influential media of information and communication or just cynically used to cause mayhem and meltdown of our increasingly fragile and fragmented social, economic and religious existence?
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