Radiolab, a radio show produced by New York NPR station WNYC, has done this really interesting show about the legacy of Orson Welles’ radio play War of the Worlds. They look at how art combined with technology – specifically the radio – was able to create mass hysteria, not once, not twice, not even three, but four times in the 20th Century.
The show also points out that the Blair Witch Project film could be described as a modern-day version of this type of storytelling, only using video cameras instead of the radio.
I should also mention that while I had heard of this show mentioned before on radio show This American Life, it was finally after reading science writer Sunny Bain’s blog that I checked it out for myself.
