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
- Mermaids, seals and selkies: the first doc entirely in #Gaelic blends #Folklore with the reality of fishing theguardian.com/film/2021/feb/… 2 days ago
- RT @folklorepod: Next up at Haunts 3, my friend and fellow folklorist @shuclarke now presenting on this classic folkloric legend https://t.… 3 days ago
- RT @forteantimes: New issue now on sale! The strange genesis of Dave & Toni Arthur’s occult-folk classic; UFOs and radar; Dyatlov Pass revi… 3 days ago
- Johnston says he feels "a bit guilty" about his previous life in #journalism: presumably not about drawing his £275… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 days ago
- RT @guardian: Steve Bell on Boris Johnson's thoughts on journalism — cartoon theguardian.com/commentisfree/… 4 days ago
Blog Stats
- 701,295 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: The 39 Steps
100 years of Fake News: The German Corpse Factory
False stories that masquerade as real news are not a product of the modern age. But few realise the modern era of ‘Fake News‘ began one hundred years ago – during the carnage of the First World War. In the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Arthur Ponsonby, BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Berliner Lokalanzeiger, black and tans, Brigadier-General John Charteris, Cadaver, cannibalism, China, corpse factory, Daily Express, Daily Mail, David Lloyd George, Douglas Haig, Fake News, Falsehood in Wartime, First World War, Germany, glycerine, Ivor Montague, Joachim Neander, John Buchan, Kadaver factory, Karl Rosner, lies, Lord Beaverbrook, Lord Northcliffe, Lord Robert Cecil, Major Hugh Pollard, MI7, New York Times, North China Herald, Professor Piers Robinson, propaganda, Punch, Randal Marlin, rumours, Sir Austen Chamberlain, The 39 Steps, The Holocaust, The National Archives, The Times, University of Sheffield
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