Urban Legends

1
Urban Legends

• GLE 0801.4.3 Make distinctions about the
  credibility, reliability, consistency, strengths,
  and limitations of resources, including
  information gathered from Web sites.

2
Print Story
3
Definition of Urban Legend from "The Vanishing
Hitchhiker"

• Urban legends "are realistic stories concerning
  recent events (or alleged events) with an ironic
  or supernatural twist. They are an integral part
  of Anglo-American culture and are told and
  believed by some of the most sophisticated "folk"
  of modern societyyoung people, urbanites, and
  the well educated.
• Jan Harold
  Brunvand, http//www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/van
  ish.asp

4
What is an urban legend?

• An urban legend is an apocryphal story told as
  true, concerning some horrific, amusing or ironic
  aspect of modern life.

5

• Though the term seems to have become synonymous
  in common parlance with "false belief," it
  denotes a more complex and subtle social
  phenomenon having to do with the production and
  transmission of folk narratives narratives
  which are indeed usually false, but which can, on
  rare occasions, prove to be true.
• http//urbanlegends.about.com/library/faq/blfaq-ur
  banlegend.htm

6
Characteristics

• It is a narrative.
• It is alleged to be true.
• It is plausible enough to be believed.
• It is passed along from individual to individual
  in oral or written form (e.g., fax, photocopy or
  email).

http//urbanlegends.about.com/library/faq/blfaq-ur
banlegend.htm
7
Print Story
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
Fact or Urban Legend?

• Lead in Lipstick
• High Cholesterol is Healthy
• Coffee FoolAre You One Too?
• Help Find Ashley Flores
• Judge Sentences Rap Music Fan to Bach, Beethoven
• Woman Says She Was Shot In The Leg By Her Stove
• The Centaur Excavations
• Dehydrated Water
• A Well Known Urban Legend
• Consider Your Source
• More Urban Legends

11
Lipstick Article
NEW PRODUCT TESTS FIND LEAD IN LIPSTICK Top
brands LOreal, Cover Girl and Christian Dior
test positive for lead!
FACT
LEGEND
12
Snopes Article
Lead in LipstickThe Food and Drug Administration
states that there is only a miniscule of harmful
substances in cosmetics, not enough to have any
adverse effect.
LEGEND
13
High Cholesterol Article

• The secret is outand studies show that higher
  cholesterol could slash your stroke risk by
  nearly 300!

FACT
LEGEND
14
Books by Dr. Douglass
High Cholesterol Healthy? William Campbell
Douglass II, M.D. is a famous alternative doctor
who is sending a free booklet to many people to
get them to buy his Douglass Report. William
Campbell Douglass (M.D.) says a diet in low fat
is actually killing everyone. He is saying a diet
high in red meat will reduce your risk of heart
disease. He claims drinking water will do more
harm than good. Is high cholesterol healthy?
That would be a question for you and your doctor
to decide.
?
Science is Critical
15
Coffee Article
Coffee Fool The shocking secret coffee companies
dont want you to know!
FACT
LEGEND
16
Coffee Article Defining Freshness
Coffee Fool This site states that all of the
coffee out there is stale. The good news is that
stale coffee is drinkable but once you've tasted
truly fresh coffee, you'll be forever hooked. You
will not know fresh until you taste coffee just
roasted. You will not know stale until you see
and taste what is unstale.
LEGEND
17
Help Find This Missing Girl Ashley Flores A 13
year old girl, Ashley Flores has been missing for
two weeks. An email bearing her picture and a
plea for help has been circulated.
FACT
LEGEND
Ashley Flores Email
18
Snopes Article
Help Find Ashley FloresThe text of the email
does not include the most basic information in a
missing child plea where the young girl went
missing, when she went missing, when and where
she was last seen, a description of her, her
parents contact information, and contact
information for the police handling the case.
LEGEND
19
Judge sentences rap music fan to Bach,
Beethoven A defendant had a hard time facing the
music. Andrew Vactor was facing a 150 fine for
playing rap music too loudly on his car stereo in
July. But a judge offered to reduce that to 35
if Vactor spent 20 hours listening to classical
music by the likes of Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.
FACT
LEGEND
Rap Music Article
20
Information from Springfield News-Sun,
http//www.springfieldnewssun.com
Judge sentences rap music fan to Bach,
Beethoven Champaign County Municipal Court Judge
Susan Fornof-Lippencott says the idea was to
force Vactor to listen to something he might not
prefer, just as other people had no choice but to
listen to his loud rap music.
FACT
21
Woman Says She Was Shot In The Leg By Her Stove A
woman said she was shot in the leg by her stove.
Cory Davis told the Peninsula Daily News she had
just stoked her cast-iron heating stove Sunday
when she heard a loud bang and was struck in her
left calf.
FACT
LEGEND
Stove Article
22
http//apnews.myway.com/article/20081008/D93MFO602
.html
Woman Says She Was Shot In The Leg By Her
Stove A case of shotgun shells spilled about a
month ago at her home and one must have landed in
the newspapers she used to light the stove. She
removed a metal fragment herself and was treated
Monday at Forks Community Hospital.
FACT
23
The Centaur Excavations In the Jack Reese
Galleria of the great Hodges Library of the
University of Tennessee the art and artifacts of
the Centaur excavation at Volos has found a
permanent home. This reconstruction of a
Centaurian burial site was assembled by Professor
William Willers of the University of Wisconsin in
the mid-1980s before being moved to the
University of Tennessee.
FACT
LEGEND
Centaur Article
24
http//apnews.myway.com/article/20081008/D93MFO602
.html
The Centaur Excavations Very well done, with
photographs, created in a good academic style
with an .edu domain. Actually explaining a hoax,
but from a quick look it's easy to be fooled.
LEGEND
25
Dehydrated WaterA commercial website selling
dehydrated water.
FACT
LEGEND
Dehydrated Water Article
26
http//www.buydehydratedwater.com
Dehydrated Water Very well put together. They
are seeking financial help in gaining market
penetration throughout local supermarkets around
the world.  The site requests a handful of
investors to help pay the required 6.5 million
slotting fee to get on the shelves.  If you are
interested, please contact investors_at_buydehydrated
water.com TESTIMONIAL
LEGEND
27
http//www.buydehydratedwater.com
Dehydrated Water "I can't believe you invested so
much time and money to create a web site like
this.  Don't you have anything better to do with
your life?"Response  And we can't believe you
took so much time to reply and vent your
disbelief.  You obviously have never tried our
water.  Our customers have a tendency to become
dedicated followers.  Don't be a cheapo.  Send us
5 and try it out for yourself.
LEGEND
28
A Well-Known Urban Legend
Print Story
29
(No Transcript)
30
(No Transcript)
31
Consider your source!
32
More Urban Legends