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
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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
Author Archives: Dr David Clarke
Mirage Men premiers at DocFest
Sheffield’s annual DocFest is one of the highlights of the year for documentary film-makers and investigative journalists. 2013 marks the festival’s 20th anniversary and many of the movers and shakers from the industry will be gathering at venues in the city centre, based in … Continue reading
You Can’t Tell the People?: Margaret Thatcher and UFO secrets
The death of ‘Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher has deprived UFOlogists of an answer to an enduring question: what did she really know about Britain’s Roswell incident? Thatcher, who died on 8 April aged 87, was 19 months into her first … Continue reading
Aliens prefer Brummies to Irish, poll finds
Just when you thought the alien abduction craze was history along comes a survey, commissioned by ITV, that claims 3% of Britons say they have been space-napped. And if the findings are to be believed, the extra-terrestrials much prefer to … Continue reading
Yorkshire ‘Ghost Plane’ puzzle solved
The mystery surrounding the identity of a hedge-hopping ‘ghost plane‘ that puzzled motorists in the Yorkshire Dales has been solved. Photographer Anita Skinner captured two dramatic images of a ‘large matte grey plane’ as it swooped dangerously low over Wharfedale … Continue reading
Crop Circles – the MI5 file
Crop circles dating back to the Second World War are “proof the phenomenon is no modern hoax”, according to a story published by The Huffington Post. Research by an Australian archaeologist, using images from Google Earth’s new 1945 overlay, has … Continue reading
The Angel of the Golan Heights
As the centenary of The Angels of Mons, the greatest urban legend of WW1, approaches, I am on the look out for rumours and stories about supernatural intervention in modern warfare. So I was pleased to read a contemporary story in … Continue reading
Heads and Tales
Well the Apocalypse that wasn’t predicted by the ancient Mayans didn’t arrive. But it won’t be long before the End Times industry picks another date for the end of the world and starts spreading the word. Some stories are just … Continue reading