Nicholas Ando
Pronouns: he/him
Research Mentor(s): Vincent Longo
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Film, Television, and Media / LSA
Program: CG
Session: Session 6 (3:40pm – 4:30pm)
Authors: Nicholas Ando, Vincent Longo
Abstract
The 1938 broadcast of Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds†is one of the most infamous instances of fake news in American history. While it has a reputation of causing nationwide panic and hysteria, our research aims to take a closer look at this phenomenon through the primary source of fan mail written after the broadcast. By analyzing the collection of over 1,000 letters kept in archives at the University of Michigan, our goal has been to transcribe every letter and make these accessible to anyone online. The result of this project is making available a website database containing all important documents about this historical event in order to contribute to further research on War of the Worlds or fake news, as well as the creation of lesson plans for educational purposes.
