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    Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet
    Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet
    Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet
    Ebook59 pages44 minutes

    Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet

    By Trevor J. Blank

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    Trevor Blank broke new ground for the field of folklore studies in this essay by rationalizing the study of the internet as an important area of expressive vernacular culture. Pushing back against traditionalists who dismissed the digital as simply the domain of technicians and mass media, Blank argues that "from the earliest moments of the modern Internet’s existence, folklore was a central component of the domain, moderating the intersection of computer professionals with hackers, newfangled lingo, and the dispersal of stories, pranks, and legends." With this essay and the volume it introduces, Blank theorizes the internet as an important analytic venue for folklorists, and sets the agenda for digital folklore research.
     
    Utah State University Press’s Current Arguments in Folklore is a series of thought-provoking, short-form, digital publications made up of provocative original material and selections from foundational titles by leading thinkers in the field. Perfect for the folklore classroom as well as the professional collection, this series provides access to important introductory content as well as innovative new work intended to stimulate scholarly conversation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUtah State University Press
    Release dateJun 14, 2014
    ISBN9780874219456
    Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet
    Author

    Trevor J. Blank

    Trevor J. Blank is a folklorist, author and an assistant professor at SUNY, Potsdam. He has a PhD in American studies from the Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg. He is a native Marylander. David J. Puglia is a PhD candidate and lecturer at Penn State Harrisburg, and he is an alumnus of the University of Maryland, College Park. He is an award-winning author and is the president of the Middle Atlantic Folklife Association. Foreword writer Charles Camp is the retired Maryland State Folklorist. Camp received his PhD in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. He is on the faculty of the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Anne Arundel Community College.

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      Book preview

      Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet - Trevor J. Blank

      Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet

      Trevor J. Blank

      A Current Arguments in Folklore selection from Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World with new material

      Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet comprises chapter 1 from Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World by Trevor J. Blank © 2009 by University Press of Colorado, and new material by Trevor J. Blank © 2014 by University Press of Colorado.

      Published by Utah State University Press

      An imprint of University Press of Colorado

      5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C

      Boulder, Colorado 80303

      The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of The Association of American University Presses.

      The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, Utah State University, and Western State Colorado University.

      All rights reserved

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for the book Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World

      Folklore and the internet: vernacular expression in a digital world / edited by

      Trevor J. Blank.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-0-87421-750-6 (pbk.: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-87421-751-3 (e-book)

      1. Folklore and the Internet. 2. Folklore—Computer network resources. 3. Digital

      communications. I. Blank, Trevor J.

      GR44.E43F65 2009

      398.02854678—dc22

      2009026813

      USU Press Current Arguments in Folklore edition, 2014

      eISBN 978-0-87421-945-6

      DOI: 10.7330_9780874219456.c001

      Contents

      Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet

      Notes

      References

      About the Author

      Current Arguments in Folklore

      Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet

      The Challenges and Promise of Folklore in the Digital Age

      One afternoon at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Folklore Society in Boise, Idaho—just one month after the release of Folklore and the Internet—I went out to lunch with a small group of folklorists. Catching up over an impressive array of potatoes and other local fare, we eventually began to discuss our new and ongoing research endeavors of late. When it was my turn to speak, I excitedly announced that I had been studying Internet folklore, and that I was conducting some ethnographic fieldwork online.¹ Before I could break into another sentence I was cut off by a veteran folklorist among us who scoffed, "You can’t do fieldwork on the Internet. Leaning forward with a dismissive grin, the scholar asserted: To do fieldwork, you must first have a field to work in, concluding, There is no such thing as true ethnography online."² I wasn’t hurt or surprised by the remarks; I had heard them before.³ Nevertheless, I present this anecdote because it encapsulates the tenor of skepticism regarding folkloristic scholarship on Internet and burgeoning new media technologies that epitomized the time.⁴ But that was 2009. And fortunately, a lot has changed over the last five years.

      When Folklore and the Internet was released on September 9, 2009, it became the first edited volume dedicated specifically to the folkloristic analysis of emergent digital technologies.⁵ Accordingly, my introduction to the anthology, Toward a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Folklore and the Internet, aimed to bring folklorists up to speed on existing scholarly literature and arguments while working to establish the Internet as a legitimate area for folkloristic inquiry. In an era where some incredulous folklorists were perhaps more inclined to side with the scholar who chided my interests in digital ethnography, the book and its introductory framework managed to break

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