Skip to Main Content

Newslore: Contemporary Folklore on the Internet

Online ISBN:
9781604739299
Print ISBN:
9781604739282
Publisher:
University Press of Mississippi
Book

Newslore: Contemporary Folklore on the Internet

Published online:
20 March 2014
Published in print:
11 April 2011
Online ISBN:
9781604739299
Print ISBN:
9781604739282
Publisher:
University Press of Mississippi

Abstract

Newslore is folklore that comments on and hinges on knowledge of current events. These expressions come in many forms: jokes, urban legends, digitally altered photographs, mock news stories, press releases or interoffice memoranda, parodies of songs, poems, political and commercial advertisements, movie previews and posters, still or animated cartoons, and short live-action films. This book offers a snapshot of the items of newslore disseminated via the Internet that gained the widest currency around the turn of the millennium. Among the newsmakers lampooned in e-mails and on the Web were Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein, and such media celebrities as Princess Diana and Michael Jackson. The book also looks at the folk response to the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, as well as the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. The book analyzes this material by tracing each item back to the news story it refers to in search of clues as to what, exactly, the item reveals about the public’s response. The book’s argument throughout is that newslore is an extremely useful and revelatory gauge for public reaction to current events, and an invaluable screen capture of the latest zeitgeist.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close