The war of the Info Ops.
Saw on the ABC site that this week marks the 85th anniversary of Orson Welles's War of the Worlds prank.
Martian war machines and terrified screams — it didn't take long for the 17th episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air to go downhill.
News flashes about strange gas explosions on Mars interrupted an orchestra performance just minutes into the broadcast, followed by an interview with an "astronomy professor".
Then a strange meteorite lands in the small town of Grovers Mill, New Jersey. A tentacled monster crawls out of a cylinder found embedded in the crater.
As police approach the creature seeking a truce, the monster — and its companions — fire a heat ray and incinerate them. The radio goes dead.
The War of the Worlds is on. Except, of course, it's not.
Weird to think that we live in this borked reality every minute of every day now. I’ve been meaning to write an essay about broken information systems for ages, but honestly, our systems are so broken now that I can’t quite figure out how to come at it.
Do we know for sure that Orson Welles really did intend this as a prank? Or was he just trying to do the best, most realistic radio play he could?
also to add an additional layer to this example there are credible scholars of history who have questioned the extent of the whole 'mass hysteria'. I realise its a Slate piece but the sources with in it refers are credible. https://slate.com/culture/2013/10/orson-welles-war-of-the-worlds-panic-myth-the-infamous-radio-broadcast-did-not-cause-a-nationwide-hysteria.html