Paranormal investigators and their teams may be approached by the press with a request for a story about the team and their investigations. These request should be handled with great care and caution.
A recent story about a paranormal investigative team and their investigation of a location with a history of activity highlights the need for caution. The team was operating under the assumption that the reporter was interested in doing a story on the paranormal activities at the location, and invited the reporter along for an investigation and a subsequent team meeting to discuss any findings. The investigation went well, the reporter was present when paranormal activity was occurring, and at the subsequent team meeting, all team members were eagerly anticipating the reporter’s story about the location and their efforts.
Unfortunately, at least from the team’s viewpoint, the story was 180 degrees out from their expectations. The emphasis in the story was not about the locality, but instead focused on one team member and not in a manner that was consistent with the professionalism that the team and its members use during investigations.
The morale (or conclusion) from this tale is that paranormal teams should consider the following before having the press do a story, or respond to an interview request.:
- Ask exactly what the subject of the story is supposed to be, who will be featured in the story, and what the tone of the story will be (professional, light-hearted, skeptical, doubtful, questioning, etc).
- Remember that anything that is said may be used in the story, and not always in the original context.
- Once the story is out and published, it may be very difficult to get a retraction, or even an apology from the press or the publisher.
So, the best advice is to fully consider what the team may be getting into. A professional investigation conducted by motivated people with a serious interest in paranormal investigation may be presented as amateurs bumbling around trying to find a ghost or two. Or the investigation and the team may only get a cursory mention in the article, or may not even be mentioned at all. Things are not always as they seem, and hopefully this article will at least keep some other investigators from getting burned by something that was not what it appeared to be.
