Last night I was listening to Orsen Wells and the Mercury Theater on the Air's adaptation of H.G. Wells War of the Worlds. This is the 1938 broadcast over the CBS network that created nation-wide panic as listeners believed Earth was being invaded by Martians. When I first heard the broadcast in the early seventies it scared the wits out of me. From that moment on, I was intrigued that a radio broadcast could panic not only a little kid but the entire nation.

After the broadcast, Orsen Wells told reporters there was no intent to create the chaos that ensued during the hour the play aired. Wells also said he was surprised people would believe there was an invasion from Mars. Years later, Wells told the BBC that he secretly wanted to demonstrate that people were too willing to believe what they heard on the radio and later television. Script writer Howard Koch, who later won an Oscar for the screenplay of Casablanca, reflected Well's sentiment in a PBS All Things Considered interview (Part 1, Part 2). Koch claimed that schools were doing a poor job in teaching kids how to think for themselves.

Could a hoax on the scale of what Orsen Wells pulled off in 1938 happen today. The answer is yes. In fact it already has happened. CNN posted a report that Apple CEO Steve Jobs suffered a major heart attack. This report triggered a massive sell off of Apple stock driving stock prices way down for about an hour before the hoax was revealed. It was later learned a teen posted the fake story CNN picked up as a joke. This story also raised concerns about the validity of "Citizen Journalism." The lesson here is in this day of near instant information, people should check the validity of sources before acting on them.

As far as an invasion from Mars is concerned? Orsen Wells said at the end of War of the Worlds, "If someone rings your doorbell and is not there, it is not Martians. Its Halloween. Happy Halloween everyone.

War of the Worlds Broadcast Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Presidential campaigns have a way of defining changes in media. Franklin Roosevelt made effective use of the radio in his election bid in 1932. Richard Nixon was the first politician to use television to speak directly to voters in 1952. John F. Kennedy showed that preparing for the characteristics of television helped him during the televised debates in 1960. Bloggers pretty much decided the election in 2004. In 2008 it will be the use of YouTube or citizen generated media that has made inroads and I expect 2012 will see its effective use by a candidate.

Both campaigns used YouTube to post campaign commercials. John McCain may have started the rewriting of Fair Use policy when some of his posts from news shows were taken down after networks complained of copyright infringement. CNN and YouTube collaborated on having people video questions for Republican and Democratic candidates during the primaries. Now YouTube, PBS, and GroundReport are teaming up for Video Your Vote which encourages people to video their experiences during the voting process and are giving away Flip camcorders to make it happen. Yet the biggest surprise is how many people picked up a video camcorder of some kind and shot video that made some kind of statement for one candidate or the other because they wanted to. I receive information e-mails from both the Obama and McCain campaigns (I should disclose that my sister is a county chairwomen for John McCain) and while most of the e-mails are asking for money (which Obama can stop because he can't possibly spend $300 million between now and election day) the McCain campaign surprised me with a call for "I am Joe the Plumber" videos.

The thing for teachers to learn from this is that people are finding new ways to communicate that are easy and cheap to do. I could write, shoot, and edit a campaign commercial for either candidate with a $100 to $150 camcorder that would look decent then upload it on YouTube. All this exercise in democracy would cost next to nothing but time. Take a look at what individuals have created on their own by surfing the campaign videos on YouTube. Think about how you can tap into that creative energy with your students. See if you can't create your own "Joe the Student" video that could change the course of history as much as "Joe the Plumber" might in this election.