When most people think of “folklore,” they tend to think of fairy tales and urban legends. Trevor Blank thinks of photoshopped memes and dark humor. Folklorist Trevor J. Blank is an assistant professor of communication at the State University of New York at Potsdam, where he researches the hybridization of folk culture in the digital age with a particular focus on emergent narrative genres and vernacular expression. In this installment of the Insights Interview series, I talk with Trevor about his approach to studying folklore on the internet. Tomorrow, in part two of this interview, I talk with Trevor about the implications of this line of thinking for institutions working to collect and preserve records of folk culture in the digital age.
Source: Understanding Folk Culture in the Digital Age: An interview with Folklorist Trevor J. Blank, Part 1, Part 2.