Welcome to my website
I am course leader and senior lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University where I teach media law and investigation skills. Prior to teaching journalism skills I worked as a news reporter for The Sheffield Star and Yorkshire Post and spent four years working as a Press Officer in local government. My Ph.D is in Folklore and was completed at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield, in 1999. My interest in folklore and the supernatural goes back to my childhood and I've been researching and writing about strange phenomena for as long as I can remember. Since 2008 I have been working with The National Archives (TNA) as their consultant for the ongoing release of the UFO files created by Britain's Ministry of Defence. My book, The UFO Files, was published by TNA in September 2009.
What is Folklore?
Once upon a time… ‘Folklore’ meant ancient ballads or fairy tales or the peculiar superstitions and customs of ‘primitive’ peoples. Today folklore is a tool for studying custom and belief, urban legends, modern myth and even rumours spread via the internet. Much folklore can be found online and buried in the narrative content of media and social networking - from legends and reports of ghosts, UFOs and 'big cats' to language, customs and traditions. The study of folklore is centrally and crucially important 'in our attempts to understand our own behaviour and that of our fellow human beings' according to one scholarly definition. Folklore is a vital and ongoing area of study and one of the few academic disciplines that engage, in a fundamental way, with everyday life.Latest Updates
My Tweets
- @GeorgeMonbiot excellent piece on bigcats & misperception - where can I find a copy of 1995 report on Beast of Bodmin? 37 minutes ago
- Best of luck to @StaceyMDove and SHU journalism students sitting NCTJ Media Law exams today @sheffhallamnews 1 hour ago
- Big-cat sightings: is Britain suffering from mass hysteria? gu.com/p/3g23d 2 hours ago
- First, David Cameron should bring his own tax havens to book | Simon Jenkins gu.com/p/3g2ea 2 hours ago
- Call for police to be allowed to name some suspects on arrest gu.com/p/3g253 2 hours ago
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Archives
- May 2013 (1)
- April 2013 (1)
- March 2013 (5)
- February 2013 (1)
- January 2013 (1)
- December 2012 (3)
- November 2012 (1)
- October 2012 (2)
- September 2012 (1)
- August 2012 (6)
- July 2012 (4)
- June 2012 (2)
- May 2012 (1)
- April 2012 (3)
- March 2012 (4)
- February 2012 (6)
- December 2011 (2)
- October 2011 (1)
- September 2011 (1)
- August 2011 (2)
- July 2011 (2)
- June 2011 (3)
- May 2011 (1)
- April 2011 (3)
- March 2011 (4)
- February 2011 (2)
Tag Cloud ahoy!
alien big cats Amazing Stories Andy Roberts BBC bbc news Ben Radford Bill Chalker Bloomsbury British Library Daily Mail Daily Telegraph David Clarke DI55 folklore Fortean Times Freedom of Information Act ghosts Halloween Hexham Heads Huffington Post Ministry of Defence MoD National Archives of Australia Paul Screeton RAF Rendlesham Roswell scared to death science fiction Sheffield Sheffield Star Silly Season spring-heeled jack steven spielberg The Guardian The National Archives The Sun Tigh nam Bodach UFO UFO desk UFO files UFOs V2 werewolf Winston Churchill
Magonia Blog- FIRST READ: ENTER THE SCEPTICS May 19, 2013
- LIFE OF PSI May 15, 2013
- A GOOD GUIDE TO STRANGE STUFF May 12, 2013
- REMEMBERING DOCTOR DEE May 8, 2013
- ART OF ALCHEMY May 5, 2013
Mark Pilkington & John Lundberg – Folklore & Deception in the UFO Age- Untitled May 11, 2013
- Coming soon October 3, 2012
- Area 51 Viewers Guide August 4, 2012
- From the vaults August 4, 2012
- Ebe’s Paranoia July 20, 2012
Bob Sheaffer’s Bad UFOs- That "Citizens Hearing" on UFO Disclosure Got the Respect it Deserved - (Very Little) May 13, 2013
- Greer's "Sirius" Documentary - no "Bombshell," just Nonstop UFO Claims April 23, 2013
- That "Citizen Hearing" on UFO "Disclosure" April 16, 2013
- Greer Documentary "Sirius" Promises Free Energy and a Dead Alien April 4, 2013
- UFO Sightings Debunker Claims UFOs Are Not Real! March 24, 2013
The Skeptic magazine- New paper on measuring belief in conspiracies out today May 21, 2013
- SitP Newcastle - Kathryn Ford: Looking Guilty May 19, 2013
- SitP Sheffield - Jennifer Saul: Implicit Bias and Scepticism May 18, 2013
- Little Atoms 279 – Chris Marsden and Ian Brown & Regulating Code May 17, 2013
- SitP Newcastle - Will Storr: Adventures with the Enemies of Science May 17, 2013
Andrew May’s Forteana blog- Paranormal Shakespeare May 19, 2013
- 200 Years of Forteana May 12, 2013
- The Frieze of Parnassus May 5, 2013
- The Strange Death of General Sikorski April 28, 2013
- Big Black Cats: Physical or Paranormal? April 21, 2013
Monthly Archives: June 2011
UFOs and the Vietnam War
Just occasionally we learn about a genuinely baffling UFO incident from a reliable primary source, such as a military memoir or pilot’s logbook. One such gem was discovered hiding in a collection of journals covering daily events during the Vietnam … Continue reading
Only joking folks!
Great significance is often placed upon ET-related utterances from world leaders by those promoting ‘disclosure’ of UFO secrets. The former US President Ronald Reagan was well-known for having what one of his aides called an obsession with “little green men”, including … Continue reading
Lost in the land of Oz
The idea that UFO files have gone missing because governments are desperate to conceal evidence of alien contact has re-emerged as a cause celebre for conspiracy theorists. The controversy was stoked earlier this year when it emerged the British government … Continue reading