Assumption @ 0

I was looking through a list of the important events of the 1900’s for some subject to base my project on when I suddenly came across the Orson Welles War of the Worlds Broadcast. I then remembered that Orson Welles also wrote Citizen Kane and I only knew that it was a very important and amazing film. I started to wonder at what else he wrote, what it might be about, what messages it might contain, and just who Orson Welles really was. I felt that the answers to these questions would not only give me insight into who Orson was but also his ways of thinking and how he perceiving the world. Those insights would, in turn help me better understand the way people think and act and help me in my struggle to understand why people do what they do.

I knew that there were a lot of things about Orson Welles that I didn’t know, and I wanted to know. So I decided the best way to start my quest was to list the things I did know in my head. I knew he was a movie producer and that he wrote Citizen Kane and was the mind behind the War of the Worlds broadcast. And then… That was it. That was all I knew and when I was finished my amount of knowledge was not only tiny but based alarmingly heavy on what I heard from others and not actual fact. I knew then that this was the subject I had to choose not just for my lack knowledge but for my interest in who exactly Orson Welles was and why he did the things he did.

    I wanted to know Orson’s background as well as his education. I wanted to know what books he had written and what  they were about. I also wished to know more about exactly what happened with the War of the Worlds broadcast. I remembered hearing about it and how it was a bit of a wake up call that helped people understand how powerful social media really was. I wondered exactly what it was that made all those people panic, what made them suddenly turn angry and turn on Orson Welles. What made the Government itself show up on the studios doorstep and accuse them of terrorism?