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Broadcast Hysteria

Orson Welle's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News

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Broadcast Hysteria

Written by: A. Brad Schwartz
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
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In Broadcast Hysteria, A. Brad Schwartz examines the history behind the infamous radio play. Did it really spawn a wave of mass hysteria? Schwartz is the first to examine the hundreds of letters sent directly to Orson Welles after the broadcast. He draws upon them, and hundreds more sent to the FCC, to recapture the roiling emotions of a bygone era, and his findings challenge conventional wisdom. Relatively few listeners believed an actual attack was underway. But even so, Schwartz shows that Welles's broadcast prompted a different kind of "mass panic" as Americans debated the bewitching power of the radio and the country's vulnerabilities in a time of crisis.

Schwartz's original research, gifted storytelling, and thoughtful analysis make Broadcast Hysteria a groundbreaking work of media history.

©2015 A. Brad Schwartz (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Americas Entertainment & Performing Arts Radio United States Entertainment War
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Overall, I have really enjoyed this audiobook. I have always been fascinated by the panic that ensued during the original airing of The War of the Worlds broadcast, so that curiosity was definitely satisfied. Learned about the real stories, others that were exaggerated, and the fallout. Lots of history on regulation of radio. Once the book that reached this point, however, it felt like the book just kept going over the same content, again and again, from different angles. I still have 2 hours left and wonder if it’s worth listening to the end. Update: listened to the end: was glad, as there was interesting stuff about what happened when the recording was replayed… some rather shocking.
The narrator has a bit of a lisp, which was distracting at times.

Very good… but a bit of overkill?

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