War of the Worlds to Social Media ― Mediated Communication in Times of Crisis

Seventy-five years after the infamous broadcast, does War of the Worlds still matter? This book answers with a resounding yes! Contributors revisit the broadcast event in order to reconsider its place as a milestone in media history, and to explore its role as a formative event for understanding citizens’ media use in times of crisis. Uniquely focused on the continuities between radio’s «new» media moment and our contemporary era of social media, the collection takes War of the Worlds as a starting point for investigating key issues in twenty-first-century communication, including: the problem of misrepresentation in mediated communication; the importance of social context for interpreting communication; and the dynamic role of listeners, viewers and users in talking back to media producers and institutions. By examining the «crisis» moment of the original broadcast in its international, academic, technological, industrial, and historical context, as well as the role of contemporary new media in ongoing «crisis» events, this volume demonstrates the broad, historical link between new media and crisis over the course of a century.

Joy Elizabeth Hayes (PhD, communication, University of California, San Diego) is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. She is the author of Radio Nation: Communication, Popular Culture and Nationalism in Mexico, 1920–1950 (2000) and has published articles in The Radio Journal, The Journal of Radio and Audio Media, Dialogos, and Cinema Journal.
Kathleen Battles (PhD, communication studies, University of Iowa) is Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism at Oakland University. She is the author of Calling All Cars: Radio Dragnets and the Technology of Policing (2010) and has published articles in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Journal of Homosexuality, and The Radio Journal.
Wendy Hilton-Morrow (PhD, communication studies, University of Iowa) is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Augustana College. She has published in Critical Studies in Media Communication and the Journal of Homosexuality.