On 30 October 1938, a radio drama caused panic in the United States. It aired on CBS and sounded like breaking news. Reporters broke into regular programming. Officials gave updates. Witnesses described explosions and strange machines.
People genuinely thought Martians had landed in New Jersey. Some people ran out of their homes. Some called the police. Others packed bags to go who knows where.
In 1938, radio was the most trusted medium in America and surely the whole world. Families gathered around it every evening like a sacred shrine. News bulletins were the core of daily programming. When that was interrupted with urgent reports of an alien invasion, many missed the disclaimer that it was fiction and went into pandemonium.
Marshall McLuhan wrote in Understanding Media that the medium is the message. He argued that the channel of communication shapes how people think, feel, and act more than the actual content. He said each medium changes human perception. Radio in 1938 was trusted. It carried presidential speeches and war updates. It shaped trust and emotional response. So, when the alien invasion news broke, people believed.
If the same alien invasion story was published in a small newspaper column, few people would have panicked. If it was staged in a theatre, the audience would have clapped. But on the radio, delivered as breaking news, the story gained authority. The medium created the reality.
Fast forward to today. Replace radio with WhatsApp, replace Martians with a voice note about election results, a miracle investment scheme, or a health scare.
On WhatsApp, messages come from people you know. Let’s say a cousin, a church group, or a spouse. The platform feels private, and that intimacy creates trust. On social media, numbers play the role of authority. Ten thousand shares must mean something, right? A verified badge must mean someone checked this, right? The mechanics are the same.
Fake news spreads because the medium makes it easy to believe.
People rely on shortcuts. If a story confirms what you already suspect, you accept it faster. If it triggers fear or anger, you share it faster. Sadly, emotion outruns logic. Always has.
In 1938, people feared war, so alien machines did not feel impossible. Today, people fear political collapse, new world order, World War 3, economic stress, and social change. Any dramatic clip that fits neatly into this creates anxiety.
Though the media is different, the pattern stays the same.
Now, you may say, Stan, I am too smart to fall for fake news. Well, search your soul and tell me you were never fooled that 5G causes … anyway. Let me not go there. But you get the point.
The medium shapes you before you shape the message. Radio trained people to accept urgent audio as reality. Social media trains you to treat viral content as relevant and important. WhatsApp trains you to treat forwarded messages as insider information.
So, when you ask why people believe fake news, look at the architecture. Every medium builds a habit in your mind. When that habit says trust this, act now, share quickly, you comply before you question.
The fictitious 1938 alien invasion may have ended after an hour, but the influence of the medium lasted forever.
