Media Theories: Cultivation theory

On October 30th 1938, an American radio show broadcasted a radio episode entitled 'War of the worlds' a Halloween special radio broadcast in the style of a 60 minute news bulletin claiming that aliens were coming to earth and the 'end was nye'. Thousands upon thousands of listeners tuned in for the faux apocalyptic story, many people fled their homes into bunkers, anxiety and panic was rive amongst the american population, many claiming they could smell poison gas and see flashes of lightning in the distance. The listeners had missed the initial part of the story claiming it was fictional, as a more popular radio broadcast was occurring simultaneously, it was reported that 1.2 million people were 'genuinely frightened' by the broadcast. This is a prime example of the cultivation theory, showing that audiences are vastly influenced by the media, however not always to this extent, this example showed the extremities it can have on the general public.