Welcome to my website
David Clarke is Associate Professor in the Department of Media Arts and Communication at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He teaches media law and his research specialism is contemporary legend. Previously he worked as a journalist for The Sheffield Star and Yorkshire Post and spent four years working as a Press Officer in local government. His PhD in Folklore and was completed at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield, in 1999. From 2008-13 he acted as consultant and curator of the MoD UFO files project with The National Archives. His books include The Angel of Mons (2004) and How UFOs Conquered the World: the history of a modern myth (2015). In 2018 he co-founded the Centre for Contemporary Legend at Sheffield Hallam University. This blog covers his twin research interests in journalism and folklore. The views expressed in the contents are entirely his own.
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.My Tweets
- Scrambled for Bogies: RAF fighter pilot's story of a 'close encounter' with an invisible #UAP over #HongKong: lates… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 8 hours ago
- Decca radar engineer's account of #UFO tracked on Cold War prototype Early Warning System in 1953: latest update to… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 8 hours ago
- @mattstanhope71 @Bob_Fischer @forteantimes Thanks check out my Radar #UAP pages for more examples: drdavidclarke.co.uk/radar-uaps/ 16 hours ago
- Fireball meteor lights up the sky and captured on doorbell cameras across the UK bbc.co.uk/news/uk-562417… 16 hours ago
- @mattstanhope71 @Bob_Fischer @forteantimes Thanks from me too! 16 hours ago
Blog Stats
- 701,502 hits
Snopes.com – Rumour has it…
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Magonia Blog
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Mark Pilkington & John Lundberg – Folklore & Deception in the UFO Age
- Mirage Men in The Guardian August 18, 2014
- Mirage Men Double Disc DVD June 16, 2014
- UFOs and F-14s over Iran May 2, 2014
- We have lift off! March 27, 2014
- Mirage Men revealed by Greenwald? February 25, 2014
Bob Sheaffer’s Bad UFOs
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The Skeptic magazine
- Ooops! TWO errors in previous message! October 1, 2015
- October Spookiness! October 1, 2015
- Empirical Sex Talk on Dacryphilia, tonight October 1, 2015
- Little Atoms 393 – Timothy Snyder & Black Earth September 30, 2015
- Ash Pryce on "How to talk to the dead" @ Greenwich SitP, 7:30 pm, 7/10/15 September 30, 2015
Charles Fort Institute Blog
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Curt Collins on saucers in pop culture
- 40 years and the Cash-Landrum UFO Case December 11, 2020
- Flying Saucer Swindlers: Four Convictions November 6, 2020
- UAP Task Force: The Pentagon Responds to Questions September 2, 2020
- UFO Documents: Provenance and Credibility by Barry Greenwood June 28, 2020
- Pentagon Answers on Navy UAP Investigations May 18, 2020
Andrew May’s Forteana blog
- Pseudoscience and Science Fiction October 9, 2016
- Astronomical debunking October 2, 2016
- Contradiction - the All-Video Murder Mystery September 25, 2016
- Sacred Porn September 18, 2016
- Astronomical computers (old ones) September 11, 2016
Paul Kimball’s The Other Side of Truth: Don’t believe, don’t disbelieve. Think
- Synchronicity, Irish Style September 9, 2019
- Project Blue Book - A Review January 28, 2019
- Stan Friedman Retires March 13, 2018
- Halifax gets Haunted! September 29, 2017
- Haunted Extra, Vol. 1.01 - Queen's County Museum Revisited August 17, 2017
Tag Archives: Daily Telegraph
UFO New Religious Movements and the Millennium
‘It might sound more like a plot for The X-Files than a case for the real-life detectives of Scotland Yard but secret Special Branch files have revealed the Met regarded Mulder and Scully, not to mention Captain Kirk and his … Continue reading
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
Ghost Rockets from Erehwon
It sounds like a “mission impossible.” But in a few days’ time a Swedish film crew will dive into a remote lake in search of wreckage from one of the mysterious “ghost rockets” that have plagued Scandinavia since the end … Continue reading
FBI ‘not interested’ in UFOs, shock revelation
“News organizations across the world were taken in — once again — by a hoax that was perpetrated more than 50 years ago….” Jesse Emspak, International Business Times The silly season has arrived early this year. Either that or news … Continue reading
Churchill did not ‘order a UFO cover-up’
In Bad Science this week Ben Goldacre asked “Why don’t journalists link to primary sources?”. He opined that if readers were directed to the original sources of headlines like ‘wind farms blamed for the stranding of whales’ (Daily Telegraph), they … Continue reading