Unit 3: The Rapid spread of Fake News (1ère AMC)

Fake News: A Case Study

The document under study is an extract from an online article published on the website History.com in 2009. It deals with a man called Orson Welles who created a radio play on October 30^th 1938 about aliens invading the USA. American cities were quoted such as Grovers Mills, Chicago or Saint Louis…

A radio play is like an audio theater, it is entirely fiction, which aims at entertaining people.

The story was made realistic thanks to the sound effects, the good performance of the actors, the details given made it believable.

As a consequence, the radio listeners thought that the story that was airing/broadcasting was true. Therefore, they started to panic and were terrified. They tried to flee and run away from their houses, some went to church to pray. Some other went to the police to ask for gas masks. Some even believed that they were all going to die.

Upon hearing these facts, to calm everyone down, Welles went on air to remind the audience that the story was merely fiction. Because of this event, Welles was afraid that this radio play could ruin his career. However, it turned in a good way for him as he had a contract with Hollywood studio and produced one for the greatest American films ever made.

This story was the first biggest fake news event in the American history, as the citizens really believed that aliens were actually invading the country thanks to the very nice performance of the actors from the radio play.

Homework: Learn the lesson.