There were many factors that contributed to the hysteria that resulted from the War of the Worlds broadcast. People were heading towards World War II. Many of them had experienced World War I, and they knew the effects another big war would cause. People relied on the radio to provide truthful, important information, and they trusted in the radio. The broadcast impersonated government authorities, police, and military, giving them more reason to believe that this was actually happening. Without this trust in the media, people may have viewed this broadcast differently, and prevented the chaos it caused. The broadcast changed the story so that instead of being situated in Europe, these things were happening right next door to them. This gave
