Newslore: Contemporary Folklore on the Internet

Abstract

Newslore: Contemporary Folklore on Internet. By Russell Frank. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011. Pp. ix + 268, preface, appendices, notes, references, index. $55.00 cloth.)Students of folklore, while often understanding academically that does not equal old, are still regularly plagued by textbook case studies that emphasize past, hand-made, generationally transmitted, and the, well, old. Few works will go as far to help exterminate this common misperception as Russell Frank's Newslore: Contemporary Folklore on Internet. This entertaining and informative collection and analysis of jokes, legends, and photoshops should be required reading for all students and scholars of contemporary studies (and also for journalists, columnists, newscasters, and anyone else involved in documentation and reporting of news) .Frank opens his work by situating his subject firmly within greater field of studies and providing reader with an overview of discipline. While this may be redundant for an audience of folklorists, it is essential grounding for new readers; field would benefit greatly in arena of public perception if all folklorists who write on specific sub-areas within discipline followed Frank's example. He also clearly delineates his range of focus, noting that newslore is a separate concept from netlore. The former, which Frank defines as folklore that comments on, and is therefore indecipherable without knowledge of, current events (7), can exist on- or offline; latter simply encompasses all traditional expressive behavior that occurs online, regardless of subject. While this book focuses on intersection of two, each can exist without other.Frank divides his chapters topically, noting that all genres he considers - jokes, legends, and photoshops - appear within each subject. He follows his introduction with a chapter on Hilary Clinton, jumping right into antagonistic world of political rhetoric. One of book's strengths - Frank's combination of academic analysis and journalistic narrative - is well illustrated in this chapter; he regularly shares his personal experiences as a journalist, offering insight into professional world that parallels folk-reporting this work examines.Chapter 2 takes on Democratic Party, zeroing in on Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry. As with all his case studies, Frank does an excellent job intermixing teaching moments with dissemination of folklore. On subject of jokes about Al Gore in particular, Frank notes that the jokes represent distillations, however unfair, of what became conventional wisdom about him (57), neady summarizing one of benefits of joke scholarship, whether digital or not. He also points out generic distinctions - difference between a joke and a hoax, for example (that latter is meant to be believed) - and clarifies for readers one of key concepts of studies: that meaning of any given piece of is largely determined by which genre is being utilized to express it. …