Annette Hill ---- Paranormal Cultural Practices

The Paranormal in Popular Culture

Annette Hill

 

Why study the paranormal in popular culture? First, historical research tells us that ghost belief and spirit forms have long been a part of culture and society. There is an historical tradition to spirit forms, such as magic lantern shows, phantasmagoria, the spirit telegraph and photograph. Second, at this historical juncture in time there is a paranormal turn in popular culture. Beliefs are on the rise in contemporary Western societies. Almost half of the British population, and two thirds of American people, claim to believe in some form of the paranormal, such as extra sensory perception, hauntings and witchcraft. Entertainment, leisure and tourism industries have turned paranormal beliefs into revenue streams. From television drama series such as Fringe, reality TV Most Haunted, to ghost tourism, paranormal ideas offer new twists on ‘things that go bump in the night.’ A third reason to research the paranormal in popular culture is that people’s practices can tell us a great deal about participation. As one person put it ‘people produce beliefs.’  The paranormal as it is experienced within popular culture involves seeing an audience not as spectators or viewers but as participants. People co-perform and co-produce their individual and collective cultural experiences.

 

This chapter draws on a popular cultural ethnography of the paranormal. The fieldwork included individual and group interviews, semi-structured focus groups, household in depth interviews, and participant observation in Britain. The sample included participants with a range of positions, audiences of magic entertainment, paranormal drama, reality TV, films, photography and the web, from sceptics to believers, to those in between. Over a hundred men and women aged 18-65+ took part in focus group interviews, 15 individual and expert interviews were conducted, 27 households interviews took place with 70 participants, and there was participant observation of ghost hunting events with approximately 70 participants. This empirical material is used to explore why people are drawn to paranormal beliefs, ideas and experiences in popular culture today.