Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Radio Drama Analysis: War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds was a radio drama played on halloween in 1938. A lot of people tuned in to only a portion of the radio drama and believed it to be real, missing the parts where the announcer tells us it is only fiction.
The War of the Worlds is presented very formally in the first part, addressing the audience directly with a series of news bulletins. This mode of address changes the audiences preconception of the show being a drama and makes it more real. In the first part of the show we hear the professional opinions of a professor of astrology. His voice is very calm, he speaks in a fairly normal rhythm and a deep voice. This is included to give the audience the impression that the professor knows what he is talking about, again trying to make the peice believable. Other sound is used for dramatic effect, like the startled gasps of a crowd observing the space capsule, or like the sound of it humming.

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