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Do You Prefer To Read, Watch Videos Or Listen To Fortean Content?

What is your preferred medium of Fortean information

  • Text (physical book)

    Votes: 15 55.6%

  • Text (online)

    Votes: 3 11.1%

  • Short videos/Youtube/Twitter videos

    Votes: 2 7.4%

  • Something else

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Audio (radio programmes, audiobooks)

    Votes: 2 7.4%

  • All of the above

    Votes: 5 18.5%
  • Total voters
    27
AnonyJ

AnonyJ

Captainess Sensible
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I was wondering if there is a clear split between those who like to read text on Fortean topics, either online or or magazines and books, and those who get much of their information and weirdness via short video form (Youtube et al.,) plus the possibility of another section of folks here who prefer audiobooks/radio programmes?

I also wonder if there is an age, gender and/or nationality split?

I am asking as I much prefer to read a story, news article or feature in text as being hyperlexic I read easily and quickly. I can get lost down the Wikiholes very easily and seem to absorb the information very readily. A couple of relatives call me 'human Google' sometimes.

My next preferred medium is audiobooks or non-fiction radio programmes that are solely/mostly just voice - I have some radio frequency headphones which I plug into my PC and I can potter and work whilst listening to some really interesting stuff - like Uncanny, Yeti or a book on cults by Arthur Goldwag for example.

Online videos frequently just annoy me - the narration, the sensationalising and the 'padding out' of the whole thing. I often ignore or turn off from posts here that are solely a video article or feature (sorry!). I can watch the longer videos but only when I stream them on my big TV, and I realise I have to be selective to find the better quality stuff among the dross (which also applies for all media).

Female, early 50s and UK here :)

[edited to tweak as per Mr GR's suggestion]
 
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A suggestion, distinguish between a print reading and an online reading? I'm happy to read the Forum online but when given a choice between a rint magazine or an online version of the same magazine the print version will win out.
 
gordonrutter said:
A suggestion, distinguish between a print reading and an online reading? I'm happy to read the Forum online but when given a choice between a rint magazine or an online version of the same magazine the print version will win out.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I seem unable to edit the poll options except to add a new one. Perhaps you may be able to do it with Mod privileges?
 
I'll take it however I can get it.
My personal library of books is always growing and I presently have so many on so many topics I doubt I'll ever get to finish them all.
I look at a number of websites daily, more weekly and follow almost 200 podcasts, though I have a handful of favourites that I listen to most episodes of.
 
Formerly, always written text. I liked to consume at my own pace, able to return and check parts I have forgotten (names, dates and locations usually).

Life has become so busy, however, and I have such an unreadably large stack of physically large books to get through that I currently favour audiobook/audio presentations where they are available.

Video: frankly, rubbish most of the time. Video documentaries with stock/recreated footage/flavour and computer-generated images are worse than useless in all but non-professionally produced video, and even in those cases, the narrative/explanation is usually a summary or abridged version of a full-length written account, an interview or a body of research. The video itself is often completely incidental. YouTube is 95% crap with regards to Forteana—new graphics for thrice-told-tales with spooky sounds and breathy mood-narrators. The 5% that remains are mostly institutional lectures and long-form discussions with experts, but they are not the ones getting millions of views.

The same is true for military documentaries. Once you've read the printed research and looked at the archived documents they are based on, the 30 min BBC version with 'relevant narrative' and ill-fitting stock-footage becomes a laughable exercise in 'spot the error'.
 
I by far prefer reading, and it is very rare for me to watch a Fortean video or listen to a podcast - I prefer physical books, but my Kindle collection is also growing (and ebooks tend to be a bit cheaper, and reduce the risk of my already bulging bookshelves collapsing onto my unsuspecting neighbour downstairs). A decent Fortean text will be fully referenced, allowing you to trace back to original sources or find other books of interest, as well as making research easier by laying out multiple books in every available space in order to pursue a particular subject...
 
Floyd1 said:
What Yith says, with the added observation that documentaries are not only often abridged to buggery, but the same image(s) are shown many, many times throughout.
Click to expand...
I've now gotten into the habit of switching off the minute they start illustrating every sentence with random stock footage. I remember starting to watch a documentary about Flight 19. The commentary mentioned WW2 bombers - illustrated with a montage including Flying Fortresses, Heinkel 111s, and an assortment of civil and military aircraft that didn't exist at the time of Flight 19's disappearance. I think the only aircraft not shown was the Grumman Avenger!
If they can't be bothered doing basic research in finding footage, then I can't be bothered watching their video.
 
I've ticked 'all of the above', simply because it depends. If I'm in bed getting ready to go to sleep, then print format is best. If it's morning and I'm perusing with a cup of tea, then I sit on my laptop and read stories. If I'm doing housework then I have radio stuff on so I can listen and work and when I'm chilling in the evening with my dinner on my lap, I like to browse through YouTube and other short videos.

So, yeah, it depends.
 
I used to prefer reading but my short term memory capabilities took a bit of a kicking when I had a mini stroke (TIA) three years ago. I even asked the Mrs to contact Skargy while it was still happening. From memory, her reply was quite funny, something like "What's he done now?". Lock down prevented me being able to get a speech therapist, Stu here was supportive and spell check was a Godsend.

I can't retain long text info from novels and the likes anymore and I get frustrated with people who don't get to the point when they're talking to me which isn't their fault. I read in short bursts so FT magazine is ideal for that and I do remember what I've read in that format.

I'm fond of youtube Fortean stuff although I'm aware there's a lot of crap out there. Anything that starts with " Heyyy, What's up you guys!?" usually gets switched off straight away.

In any format, sequencing of events is an important factor for me so ...

'Davy Jones was found down a well with two hamsters in his pockets in 1936 in Hampshire .....' and I'll keep reading to find out why.

If any format instead starts with ..

'It was a unusually blustery morning in Hampshire, 1936. The sheep had just started grazing as the farm boy wandered over to the well to etc etc' , I fall asleep. I'm all for setting the scene but please let me know why and what it is I'm listening to, reading or watching first
 
Written, ultimately I read far more Fortean and adjacent material on online than in books and it's been this way for well over a decade. I'm aware of the general information and "classic cases" of the majority of Forteana, so there's not much of that to learn, as it were. Obviously new cases and takes on old ones come to light all the time - and the internet is that much faster than print. Still read FT, rarely read Fortean books anymore.

There's also something about a forum or even reddit, that lends itself to an IHTM tale, they tend to be short "I was in X place, at Y time of day, in Z year and I saw an A manifesting in some form." The longer more involved ones are either told by meticulous tellers or read as fiction, which they almost certainly are.

Videos on youtube etc, are often sensationalist and trite and where they purport to show footage of a bigfoot for something, they are, quite frankly bollocks. Intermittently watch CFZ's On the Track show but that's about it. Podcasts likewise can be very hit and miss but do listen from to time.
 
SimonBurchell said:
I by far prefer reading, and it is very rare for me to watch a Fortean video or listen to a podcast - I prefer physical books, but my Kindle collection is also growing (and ebooks tend to be a bit cheaper, and reduce the risk of my already bulging bookshelves collapsing onto my unsuspecting neighbour downstairs). A decent Fortean text will be fully referenced, allowing you to trace back to original sources or find other books of interest, as well as making research easier by laying out multiple books in every available space in order to pursue a particular subject...
Click to expand...

I do the majority of my actual reading online or in screen text form now, as my determination to 'live simply' has resulted in a drastic downsize in my bookshelves to about 14 feet in total length. If I buy physical books now, I normally try my hardest to get second-hand.

I also listen to audiobooks for about 90% of books, rather than sit and read - especially good for dense history tomes - and if one is slightly dull and read consistently well, it is an excellent soporific for bedtime!
 
Books for any form of in depth coverage. The internet, FT magazine for new developments. Sensible documentaries, podcasts etc. especially useful for discussion of and analysis of any movie footage. This forum for informed discussion.

I find reading long texts on screen difficult. Sometimes it's good to combine media, a book about for instance the Patterson Gimlin film can be enhanced if you can watch it at the same time.

I dare not measure my bookshelves. :omg:
 
Being both someone who lives abroad for much of the time as well as something of a techorefusenik, I am somewhat starved of printed Fortean matter (ditto science fiction and horror novels - although to a lesser extent). I can access bookshops which sell some English language books, but almost none of them tend to be about the Unexplained.

I do watch Youtube videos - on my phone mostly - rather more than I'm comfortable with (it's a habit I picked up during the pandemic really - I had somehow resisted doing it all that much previously). However, even here I find I gravitate to sociopolitical polemic more than I do Fortean material. I really do agree with Bigphoot 2's comment above about how Fortean type documentaries use any old visual material to hand to make sure that their narrative keeps our attention. Sometimes this really matters as it can skew the whole way that you perceive a story.

My forays back to the UK resemble a heroine addict looking fior a shot. I hit the bookshops with my tongue hanging out of my mouth and lustily scan the TV listings.

I should say that having restricted access to books on mysteries and so on does have some advantages. For one thing, it makes you tend to choose any book you buy with great care. Then you tend to read it with greater concentration than you would something more easily available- and reread it to. So it all keeps your mind focused and less cluttered.

I want to add that, while British TV gets a bad press a lot on here( and elsewhere), it does still favour us with the odd bobby dazzler. I have written elsewhere about a documentary on the Bermuda Triangle which I caught in the UK last summer and which was excellent - looking for earthly explanations without losing the sense of wonder:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...programmes—helpful-or-not.69501/#post-2184421
(post #23 on this thread).

Also, for fellow printed page afficiocandoes, I did set up a thread on the topic of Hard Copy Forteran magazines a while back. It could take some more traffic:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/hard-copy-newsletters-with-a-fortean-focus.68169/
 
I'm a bit of a YouTube addict, though I love my paper FT and have collected every issue and extra since 1991.
I've subbed to mainly interview and chat livestreams on weird stuff as it's like hanging out with friends.
 
I have found podcasts a great way of keeping up with Fortean topics and I listen to these whilst cooking and preparing my packed lunch for the next day. Through podcasts I have purchased a number of books to further investigate a topic or the work of a researcher. I also set aside some time on a Sunday for Fortean content on YouTube (especially Small Town Monsters).
 
I'll take fortean reports / articles / stuff however they come! In the UK there are a number of TV channels that cover such things. [Let's face it! BLAZE].

I have a subscription to Fortean Times that allows me to read the online version if I want but I normally just stay to the mags. I dip into 'The Book of The Damned' from time to time and have read other books that could be said to cover Fortean things.

Of coarse, as has been noted, there is a lot of rubbish out there.
 
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