April 2012 - URBAN LEGENDS

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true. As with all folklore and mythology, the label suggests nothing about the story's truthfulness, only that it is in circulation, exhibits variation over time, and carries some significance that motivates people to preserve and repeat it. 

The term “urban legend” was introduced by Jan Harold Brunvand, professor of English at the University of Utah, in a series of popular books published beginning in 1981. His collection of legends, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings (1981) to made two points: first, that legends and folklore do not occur exclusively in so-called primitive or traditional societies, and second, that one could learn much about urban and modern culture by studying such tales. 

 Now the use of the term "urban legend" embraces not only urban legends but also common fallacies, misinformation, old wives' tales, strange news stories, rumors, celebrity gossip, and similar items. They are told as true and just plausible enough to be believed. 

Albeit synonymous in common parlance with "false belief," the term "urban legend" is meant to denote a more subtle and complex social phenomenon, namely the emergence and transmission of contemporary folk narratives — narratives which are indeed usually false, but which also, on occasion, turn out to be 99.99% true. The critical factor is that it's told as true despite the absence of confirming evidence. 

The Internet makes it easier to spread urban legends, and also to debunk them. Discussing, tracking, and analyzing urban legends are the topics of a Google Group and many websites (see the list below). The United States Department of Energy had a service, now discontinued, called Hoaxbusters that dealt with computer-distributed hoaxes and legends. 

 Television shows such as Urban Legends, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, and later Mostly True Stories: Urban Legends Revealed feature re-enactments of urban legends detailing the accounts of the tales and (typically) later in the show, these programs reveal any factual basis they may have. The 1998 film Urban Legend featured students extensively discussing popular urban legends while at the same time falling victim to them. 

Shows currently on TV include Urban Legends on the SyFy channel, although it is not on regularly. Since 2004 the Discovery Channel TV show MythBusters tries to prove or disprove urban legends by attempting to reproduce them using the scientific method. 

www.groups.google.com/group/alt.folklore.urban 

www.snopes.com urbanlegends.about.com 

www.hoaxbusters.org