What do you think would happen today if a guy like Orson Welles broadcast that space aliens were invading us?

If it were disseminated in a modern manner and if the collateral sources were also compromised, I believe it would be believed even more so than in 1938.

People are every bit as stupid and gullible as they were in 38. Not everybody fell for Welles’ hoax. You had to be tuned in at the time to be even aware that it was going on. But there’s a reason we will always have carnival mentalists, astrologers, fortune tellers, palm readers, etc. It’s a matter of “some of the people, all of the time”.

It takes more than an original broadcast.

{People come to believe what they do based on the reactions of those around them. In many cases, if some are hysterical, it will be perceived as credible and others will blindly follow.

Today, when an incredible story breaks, virtually all the media carry their water. They want a piece of the action and are too lazy to investigate on their own or go against the common story.

Haha, I mean, they fell for covid hook line & sinker so…

“People? Which people?

As if we needed more evidence of the idiocy of the current population with regards to media?

There are too many easily accessible, alternative news sources nowadays for that to work.
It would require most of the main ones to conspire to disseminate the broadcast simultaneously.

@Zaku Think of children, for a moment. If that mentally ill guy on the corner is reviled by a child’s parents, the child will hate, fear, or feel negatively about the person. If the child’s best friend next door has parents who are sympathetic or support the person, the child will feel its the right thing to do.

The same is true with media. If one radio station carries an impossible to believe story, then most will reject it as ridiculous. But if nine networks, out of laziness or bias, carry the story, then it will be a lot more credible. If the neighbors are throwing their belongings out the window and heading for Canada, Springfield, or the Cascades, most people will think something is really going on.

My sister believed the economy was bad when in fact it was robust and growing. Why? Were the signs around her? No. She heard it on the news. ALL the news she subscribed to. We ‘just hadn’t seen it yet.’

It would break the internet!!!

People would believe spacemen were living among us if he told them. He could tell people in a vlog that all humans have been thoroughly studied and our memories had been wiped so we wouldn’t remember the invasive experiments. People would start “remembering” bits of the ordeal.
Oh, and everyone would grab their guns, and go to stock up on toilet paper, and tuna.

The supposed public hysteria in reaction to the radioplay has been greatly overblown. More the stuff of urban legend than reality. While Welles’ broadcast did cause a relative few people to panic, the extent of that panic was overstated by sensationalist news headlines. Relatively few people, nationwide, were even listening in to begin with. Welles’ program, Mercury Theater on the Air, had a consistently low listenership as its timeslot put it in direct competition with far more popular programs of the time. Those who were regular listeners were likely well familiar with Welles’ penchant for adapting more fantastical material (Dracula, Heart of Darkness and The Man Who Was Thursday were among some of the other works that Welles adapted for his program).

It seems that most people who did complain took offense at the play being presented as if it were a news broadcast, but few of those complaints indicated any panic. I guess people screamed about “fake news” even back then.