Gotcha!
The War of the Worlds radio drama by Orson Welles was never meant to fool anybody. Nevertheless, people fled their houses and police and radio telephones were swarmed with concerned listeners.
The broadcast was made believable by its style and current events at the time. The country was involved in World War II and radio stations would often have breaking news that would interrupt regular programs on the show. The War of the Worlds hoax was presented in the same way. But, instead of interrupting a playing song to report important updates on the war, the narrator announced that aliens have landed.
The actors involved in the broadcast were prepared by listening to recordings of the Hindenburg catastrophe. The announcer covering the Hindenburg incident conveyed a fearful, devastated mood to the actors who could, in turn, do the same for their listeners.
I believe such a hoax like this that affects such a large population is very unlikely to happen again. Back then, the only thing that could instantly transmit news was the radio that they were listening to. If Americans heard of aliens touching down on Earth over the radio again, they would instantly turn to the internet and learn that it is false. Normally, big news will be on nearly every news source on the internet as well as social media. If it is only coming from one source, it is unlikely that it will be believed.
After learning about the War of the Worlds hoax, there is no change about the way I feel about factual news reports. As I have said before, news comes from countless different sources. If one is giving incorrect or false “factual” news, there will be others that would contradict it.
I believe that RadioLab presented the story well. Explaining the story with facts and reason along with actual clips of what people heard in 1938 helped me fully understand how listeners felt and why they felt that way. RadioLab included audio of people’s reactions to the broadcast, the broadcast itself, and part of the Hindenburg event in the show.
-Justin Deringer
mediawise 
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