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Re: Instant urban legend--Research proposal



 The gas price story WAS well documented here in Denver. I saw it on the
news last night on our Channel 9 KUSA which is the top rated news
station. Interviews with motorists, gas station workers, AAA rep., oil
company rep., they covered it in depth.

 Now for a thesis or dissertation topic, compare and contrast
public reaction to Pearl Harbor and the events of yesterday.


On Wed, 12 Sep 2001, John Fowler wrote:

> Wait a minute folks.
>
> We are talking about documenting these events.  Well and good.  But
> keeping newspapers?  I don't EVEN want to get into THAT discussion again.
>  There is something much more interesting to document here, something I
> have not seen on the regular news channels.
>
> It looks to me that this phenomenal rumor about gasoline prices
> skyrocketing has not been picked up by the media.  From the reports on
> this listserve, the centers of the rumor were most probably in Eastern
> Kansas or Western Missouri.  Because of the way it seems to have spread,
> I imagine it was on one of the Christian "news" channels.  But maybe not.
>
>
> So here's the interesting question: it's easy enough to document
> predigested news bites as seen on TV or in the papers.  How do you trace
> an urban legend and document its growth?  So far, the only thing I can
> think of is to monitor and capture materials on newsgroups such as this
> one.  But that has all sorts of observer/observed interaction problems.
>
> "Any thoughts?" he asked, hoping to sway the list back to matters
> archival....
>
> JHF
>
> John Howard Fowler, PhD, MLIS
> Consulting Archivist
> 3221 W. 177th
> Torrance, CA  90504-4003
> 310-327-5848
>
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>