Unfortunately, my research process is off to a rocky start.
In choosing an obscure event from the get-go – a very specific alien encounter
in a very specific time frame - I ensured that my topic would be refined and
specific enough to create an in-depth podcast. A downside to my specificity,
however, is that the conversation around my topic is not very widespread, and
my various database searches have yielded almost nothing I can use. I went as
far as to book an appointment with a York University librarian, and even she
was unable to find anything through traditional search engines. As this class
is all about research, I was determined to apply the research methods discussed
in lecture to my research process, but it’s looking like I will have to think
outside the box and search for information in different ways if I’m going to
have something substantial to talk about.
The most pressing issue I’ve encountered is that very little
scholarly attention has been paid to the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter. I didn’t
expect that a lot of experts would focus on this event in particular, so I’ve
been searching for scholarship around mankind’s fixation on extraterrestrial
life in general, perhaps in the fields of anthropology or world history. My
research thus far has produced nothing particularly useful, but I’d like to
find a few scholarly articles on the topic. It is becoming more and more clear
to me that my podcast will depend primarily on popular sources. While little
has been published about alien encounters in scholarly circles, there is a
wealth of information to be found in popular publications. I’ve already
uncovered a number of articles published in the Kentucky New Era,
Kelly/Hopkinsville’s local paper, around the time of the Green Men incident, as
well as articles published in the same paper in subsequent years reflecting on the
event. I’ve also found a short documentary about the Hopkinsville Goblins and a
number of Ufology websites that discuss alien sightings throughout history. I
hope to find more articles published in newspapers outside of Kentucky, as well
as specific periodicals dedicated to ufology and alien encounters.
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