Listener Round Table - Comicon

[matthew1977]

Just listened to the Round Table show and it was suggested to have ufo tables at Comicon to draw in the "young crowd". I just wanted to point out that Maureen Elsberry & Jason McClellan (both formerly of Openminds.tv now part of Rogueplanet.tv ) were/are regulars at Comicon.

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[Sue]

I don't know who Elsberry and McClellan are, but they sound like good people to research and maybe talk to. I don't know crap about Comicon apart from working/training with younger folks who are either fans or in the business. Is it mostly about the fun of cosplay and imaginary superhero narratives, or is there room there for interest in/exchanging information about weird personal experiences? I guess what I'm saying is, is there any curiosity about such things there, or is Comicon all about consumer culture? If there might be sub-populations who are interested in or experiencers of various paranormal phenomena at Comicon, what would be the best way to reach them?

Sorry. Not expecting answers, just thinking out loud.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

I have been following Maureen and Jason for sometime, who along with Alejandro Rojas have been involved with Open Minds on and off, well I think Maureen has gone on to do other things in TV to do with UFOs so best of luck. But you may often find Jason being interviewed about UFO topics and really they are very well known in the field and between them have probably interviewed a large proportion of important figures in Ufology. Also, neither of them are anywhere near 'true believers' and really have their heads screwed on properly.

 

[Sue]

This might go better under Young People and UFOs:

I finally got a chance to ask my young (30) friend about Why Young People Aren’t Interested in UFOs And Are Interested In Comicon, assuring him that his answers would be understood as representative for all young people everywhere. (The context to this question is the 10th anniversary episode where the question was raised.) This guy is a member of our weekly martial arts class and an animation artist who keeps a pretty close eye on the industry.

First I asked what people get out of going to Comicon (or any other similar large convention). He said that in years past a big part of the attraction for him was having access to cultural items, for example certain T-shirts, that simply weren’t available elsewhere. He said a large part of that attraction was lost to him today simply because nerd culture has gone mainstream and stuff like that is now widely available. There’s no exciting payoff to waiting in long lines anymore, either. As far as being present for the unveiling of some exciting new video or a celebrity appearance, he said it was so easy to enjoy the same content the next day over the internet in the comfort of home that he wasn’t sure why people were going to Comicon.

I next asked what people in the UFO field could do or bring to an event like Comicon to attract new interest to the topic. Keeping in mind that 87% of his pop culture, industry and technical references went straight past me, a summary of our exchange would be if there was an animated series, manga or graphic novel about UFOs and ufology to feature, you could get a booth in the products section and try your luck. You’d want to work in some (gratuitous) good costumes and action scenes around the UFO material, but I could actually see a graphic novel presentation of UFO history or something like Clark’s The Unexplained being pretty cool. (You need good costumes to encourage cosplay and meme generation.)

Then I moved onto are you interested in UFOs, why or why not? He said no because any time you heard about something strange being seen and all that Area 51 stuff it seemed pretty obvious that there was an explanation for it, even if it wasn’t immediately available. The subtext I heard there was that people who got all worked up about that stuff were along the lines of drama queens or people with nothing better to do. I got the impression that he was aware of the broad, stereotypical version of ufology and on that basis saw no reason to take a closer look at any particular aspect of it. I know that for the generation who was into ufology the subject had great mystery and intrigue to it, so I asked my friend where young people today find the mystery and intrigue in their lives.

“In the future,” he said. He saw the future as so uncertain and his ability to get safely from here to there as so tenuous that that was mystery enough him. I asked him where he found the magic in life and he said, “Imagining what it would be like to not have student loans.”

 

[Goggs Mackay]

@Sue -great piece of mini-research. The idea of a Manga-style UFO themed book is very interesting. Most of us here agree that the documentary like 'Out of the Blue' by James Fox is a great round-up of great cases etc. I can't wait for '701' to be finished.

But I wonder if there might be more bite-sized chunks of hard information that can somehow be 'fed' to the younger crowd, through social media and youtube etc. It saddens me to see references to Area 51 as if it even remotely represented the truth of Ufology. I'm sure many younger people would be surprised to learn the true background of cases, government and military concern, through to cover-up, denial and laughter. Really, if we can feed younger people the real history that continues today, without shoving it down their faces or mentioning Area 51 etc, I wonder if a fresher fact-based meme may be created that can be swapped around in a, 'Did you know the US Military did such and such back in 19**' etc?

 

[DaveM]

I have four members of my family that range in ages from 26 to 30 years old. The main interest in their lives is to establish their careers. When they have spare time, mostly on the weekends, they are partying with their friends or travelling. UFOS are not on the radar screen at all.

Today's media has made discussion of ufos and the paranormal into a joke in most instances. You can't really blame younger people for not taking the subject of ufos and aliens very seriously.