The Digital Folklore Project (DFP) is a virtual research and tracking center dedicated to tracking and documenting digital folklore trends on an annual basis. Each year, the DFP creates collections of trending memes, hashtags, urban legends, or other pieces of digital culture, then studies their prevalence in society and releases annual findings regarding the most significant types of digital folklore for that year, titled the Digital Trend of the Year.
Associate Professor; Director of Graduate Studies (she/her/hers)
(435) 797-0264
Logan (RWST 301B)
lynne.mcneill@usu.edu
The Digital Folklore Project's Research Team is made up of faculty and graduate students at Utah State University. While the DFP enthusiastically crowdsources materials from all over the world (encouraging both professional and amateur digital ethnographers to tweet about trends they've spotted using the hashtag #DigitalTrendOfTheYear), the Research Team performs the core of both field research and ballot preparation for the Digital Trend Of the Year competition. The research team tweets regularly and draws up monthly field notes about their observations, notes that will be preserved along with the twitter feeds in the archival holdings of the Fife Folklore Archives at USU. Through these efforts, the DFP hopes to preserve and present to researchers an on-the-ground perspective on digital everyday life through time. At the end of the year, the Research Team is responsible for preparing the ballot that the distinguished panelists will use to vote and comment on the nominees for the Digital Trend of the Year. The Research Team is the heart of the DFP; their efforts shape our ongoing understanding of our digital experience
USU's Digital Folklore Project has named the hashtag #MahsaAmini, which launched a significant grassroots protest of the Iranian government’s treatment of women, the #DigitalLoreoftheYear for 2022. The Corn Kid video was a contender for the serious fun ca...
The meme “How It Started/How It’s Going/How It Ended” has been named the #DigitalTrendoftheYear by student and faculty researchers at USU’s Digital Folklore Project.
Two Utah State University folklorists have announced the most influential digital trends of 2019 -- “Greta Thunberg vs. President Trump” in the social justice category and “Storm Area 51” in the serious fun category.
Utah State University's Digital Folklore Project has named the most influential and wide-spread memes of 2018, including the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport and the Tide Pod Challenges.
