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From: UFO UpDates - Toronto
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 08:53:17 -0400
Fwd Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 08:53:17 -0400
Subject: 1999 Canadian UFO Survey Now Available On-Line


Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 07:36:47 -0500 (CDT)
From: Chris Rutkowski <rutkows@cc.umanitoba.ca>
Subject: Re: [canufo] 1999 Canadian UFO Survey Now Available On-Line
To: canufo@egroups.com


ghostgirl writes:

 >I'm a fellow Canadian new to this list. Wanted to mention I
 >heard your survey being mentoned on CP24 in Toronto earlier.
 >Their response to the increase in sightings reported within the
 >survey was that these types of jumps in sightings are a direct
 >result of the popularity of UFO themed t.v shows, sorry didn't
 >catch which one they cited as the cause of this increase. My
 >question to you is this... to what extent, if any does the
 >increase in sightings relate to media? Was there an increase in
 >reported UFO activity during say the first season of the
 >X-files?

 >BTW I did read your survey, and was impressed with the obvious
hard >work put into it!

Thanks, Susan.

Their reaction is one which I try to address when I'm
interviewed by reporters. While true to a certain degree, the
reality is that the media link is only one of many factors which
influence sighting reports. There have been several studies of
UFO reports and media, the most notable being one by Herbert
Strentz a few decades ago, in which he found that the media
*greatly* controlled UFO sightings. However, one can easily
dispel the X-Files myth by looking at last year. Sightings are
way up, and interest in the X-Files is way down. Obviously, no
connection, right?

Another thing to consider is that when a newspaper or radio
station covers a local UFO sighting, what inevitably happens is
that more people start looking up and more UFO sightings are
reported. So the media may not be influencing people's beliefs,
but may be a way of getting them to report their own
experiences. Is that the same kind of "media effect"?

Thanks for your excellent question!


--
Nobody in particular

____________________

1999 Canadian UFO Survey results available at:

www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/2653