History Main / ElectromagneticGhosts

* ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion'' characters can do this using Inhabit, which allows possession and control of inanimate objects.

When they're not tormenting humans or scaring pets, ghosts are interfering with technology, appearing on video screens, making radios and [=TVs=] crackle and playing with the lights. Alongside [[GhostlyChill cold spots]], EM interference is one of the 'recognised' signs of a haunting. One variation, known as EVP (electronic voice phenomena), specifically involves anomalous voices or other sounds on electronic audio recordings.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* In the ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'' fic ''FanFic/ShadowOfTheDragon'', Tomoyo uses a tape recorder to communicate with the ghost of [[OriginalCharacter Reiko Ichimai]].

[[folder:Film]]

* The Ghostbusters of [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} their self-titled franchise]] use a device that measures electromagnetic disruption to locate ghosts.

* The 2010 movie ''Film/GhostFromTheMachine'' (''Phasma Ex Machina'') has the protagonist build a device that creates an intense electromagnetic field in order to bring ghosts closer to the land of the Living, in an attempt to resurrect his dead parents. However, it also brings back his neighbor's dead wife, and [[spoiler: the psychotic murderer[=/=]suicide who used to own his house...]]

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Johnny and the Dead'', the Dead are able to manipulate, damage, or generally mess around with radios, telephones, televisions, arcade games, jukeboxes, computer networks, satellites, and radio telescopes. Justified because one of them was an electronics genius in life, while another is Albert Einstein's distant cousin.

* In ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy'', the Possessed - human souls returning from death via DemonicPossession - disrupt any nearby 27th century equipment. When the Possessed take over a planet, they must rely on archaic mid-20th century technology as modern equipment ceases functioning or is bugged beyond usability.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Averted in ''Film/TheStoneTape'' despite the wide array of electronic equipment used to study the ghost. Eventually the scientists realise what they hear and feel is the brain's reaction to whatever is [[LivingMemory imprinted into the walls]]; this is why some people are more sensitive to paranormal phenomena than others.

[[folder:Music]]
* The song and music video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ3jl794mGs “White Noise”]] by Music/{{PVRIS}} are about a frustrated ghost that wants to communicate with the living but can't do anything other than cause interference.

[[folder:Podcast]]
* In ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' it is implied that this is why the "bizarre" statements (i.e. all the ones the audience hears) come out distorted when the archivist tries to record them on a computer, so he has to use an old tape recorder. Some of those making statements seem to have come across similar distortion.
** In the episode "Growing Dark" it is hinted that something supernatural is causing the lights to stop working in the narrator's girlfriend's flat. They replace the bulbs, check the fittings and call in an electrician but can find nothing apparently wrong. Then [[spoiler:subverted when it turns out not to be supernatural, merely bizarre - someone (presumably his girlfriend's strange flatmate) keeps unscrewing all the bulbs just enough to break the connections]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* The [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slender Man]] is often shown to muck up electronic equipment, causing static, audio and visual distortion, missing frames, added frames, and general horror. A video camera is also a way to see him when he is otherwise invisible. In ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'', trying to film him tends to make it worse.
* Jay Are's backpack in Theatre/TheLeagueOfSTEAM is supposedly a device for picking up [=EVP=]s.

** In one episode Bender the robot inherits a castle that turns out to haunted by robot ghosts because their graves are inadequately grounded.
--> Ghost: "Come with us Bender. You'll like being ''dead''!"
--> Bender: "That's what they said about being ''alive''!"
** In a later episode Bender dies and becomes a ghost in the digital cloud. Nobody can see or hear him (except the Robot Devil, and some cows) but he can possess electronic devices and annoy his friends.

** In ''SilentHillShatteredMemories'', you can only see ghosts by looking at them with Harry's cell phone camera, and "echo memories" (which are sort of... lingering traces of emotionally-charged events?) cause the phone to give off weird static/feedback.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slender Man]] is often shown to muck up electronic equipment, causing static, audio and visual distortion, missing frames, added frames, and general horror. A video camera is also a way to see him when he is otherwise invisible. In ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'', trying to film him tends to make it worse.
* Jay Are's backpack in Theatre/TheLeagueOfSTEAM is supposedly a device for picking up [=EVP=]s.

* Taping [=EVPs=] and scanning for electromagnetic signs of ghosts is a crucial part of ''TheLostCrown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure''.

* Samara Morgan in ''Film/TheRing'' imprints images on a blank videotape (cursing it in the process) and can manipulate televisions when someone's week is up, up to and including emerging from the screen. Before her death, she had similar abilities to psychically imprint images on electromagnetic film

* The webcomic ''{{Chainsawsuit}}'' plays with this in one of their panels, where the ghost in question is the ghost of an old bunny-eared TV set spouting static.

* The [[TheSlenderManMythos Slender Man]] is often shown to muck up electronic equipment, causing static, audio and visual distortion, missing frames, added frames, and general horror. A video camera is also a way to see him when he is otherwise invisible. In ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'', trying to film him tends to make it worse.

* Played in all 3 ''VideoGame/DarkFall'' games. In the first one, sometimes ghosts talk to you through the [[EvilPhone reception phone]], Polly and Nigel's surveillance system occasionally flickers into showing dark splotches, or how various rooms appeared in the past. And distorted audio files on their computer can be edited to reveal voices. The second, ''Lost Souls'' has an old World War 2 radio that's been rumored to be haunted, and tuning it to a certain frequency and using ghost-hunting goggles reveals an evil voice talking to you. A haunted TV appears in ''VideoGame/DarkFall: Lost Souls'', displaying cryptic images that provide clues to [[spoiler: the code for the ring mechanism]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' Bender the robot inherits a castle that turns out to haunted by robot ghosts because their graves are inadequately grounded.

* In an episode of ''Futurama'' Bender the robot inherits a castle that turns out to haunted by robot ghosts because their graves are inadequately grounded.

* ''Webcomic/Hejibits'' has [[http://www.hejibits.com/comics/spectral-signal/ this]] example.

* In ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' it is implied that this is why the "bizarre" statements (i.e. all the ones the audience hears) come out distorted when the archivist tries to record them on a computer, so he has to use an old tape recorder.

* A haunted TV appears in ''VideoGame/DarkFall: Lost Souls'', displaying cryptic images that provide clues to [[spoiler: the code for the ring mechanism]].

* The Ghostbusters of ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'' use a device that measures electromagnetic disruption to locate ghosts.

* In ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', the ghost researchers use this sort of equipment to monitor the ghostly activities in the house. After one supernatural occurrence, one of them even notes "It's electrical - you can smell the charge."

* Creator/TimPowers is fond of this trope. In his trilogy that consists of ''Literature/LastCall'', ''Expiration Date'', and ''Earthquake Weather'', ghosts can call people up on phones and appear on TV talk shows (at least, on the version being watched by the person they're haunting).

* Creator/TimPowers is fond of this trope. In his ''Fault Lines'' trilogy, ghosts can call people up on phones and appear on TV talk shows (at least, on the version being watched by the person they're haunting).