Literature Review #2

Citation: 

McGinnis, Shelley E. Dallas, Roswell, Area 51: A Social History of American "Conspiracy Tourism." ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2010.

Key Terms and Concepts:

• Counterknowledge as uncovering hidden information, tearing down and rebuilding events and narratives in a cohesive way to present one’s own interpretation as fact.
• The rise of conspiracy theories in society led to people visiting relevant locations of said theories, which local governments and people seized as an opportunity to drive the tourist economy in the location.    

    The first chapter focuses on how conspiracy theories have helped shape the tourism of many locations in the U.S. Chapter 2 is about the tourism of the Grassy Knoll where JFK was assassinated, and how the conspiracy theories surrounding drew in tourists. Chapter 3 looks at the alleged 1947 UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico in the frame of the other UFO sightings in the U.S. in the same timeframe, and the marginalization of UFO research in the public’s view. The author then connects this to the resurgence of popularity of the crash in the 90s, when the town of Roswell started a series of local festivals dedicated to the Roswell crash every July, and how the tourism generated from this helps fuel the economy. Chapter 4 looks at a town near Area 51 called Rachel, Nevada, which is around the midpoint of a highway later dubbed the “Extraterrestrial Highway.” The town started to rebrand some of their business in the late 80s to be alien-themed as an influx of tourists began to come to the area to hopefully see a glimpse of the secrets at Area 51 as early internet communities around the subject began to form. The last chapter talks about how conspiracies tend to strengthen each other and overlap, how the locations use these theories to boost their economy, and how these tourist attractions sometimes clash with the desires of some that hope to research the incidents.

    The author, Shelley E. McGinnis, wrote this dissertation to receive a doctorate in Philosophy in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina. The dissertation provided another valuable example of paranormal tourism, the UFO Festivals of Roswell, as well as explored economic and societal reasons that help bring the commercialization to the tourist locations.

1. “A second result is the annual ‘UFO Festival’ held every July since 1995 in Roswell – an event organized by promoters who worked hard to overcome the perceived stigma of ‘weirdness’ attached to the subject matter both by emphasizing a playful, ‘fun’ attitude toward UFOs and by linking support of UFO tourism explicitly to ideals of civic duty and community.” (McGinnis 104)
2. “The popular acceptance or interest in conspiracy theory is manifested at ground level at the locations studied in the preceding chapters – in the form of flesh-and-blood visitors and the dollars that they spend.” (McGinnis 189)
3. “Why travel to a place to read about it, especially in the age of the Internet? As we have seen, many visitors to these sites also value information that is linked in some way to physical presence, such as visual-spatial orientation…” (McGinnis 195)