As I’m deep into my field research, there are 3 websites I am focusing on: Lost Media Wiki, Reddit, and YouTube. I believe I can’t talk about Reddit without talking about digital folklore and the legends and myths of the Internet.
Two subcategories of lost media are “existence unconfirmed”, and “non-existence confirmed” media, both of which are sections of the Lost Media Wiki. This brings us to folklore and mythology on the Internet. It’s important to note that if something never existed, it can’t be lost. However, as I’m diving deep into online communities and discussing collective nostalgia, I think it’s important to give context.
Armstrong and Ruths (2020) explore Reddit legends and how they can be considered folklore. They highlight that while the majority of the Internet is centered around new and exciting trends, Reddit is the home of historical references and retellings of ancient events, memes, and content. They analyzed a subreddit dedicated to cataloguing content on reddit called r/MuseumofReddit and review 233 posts all made before 2016, excluding irrelevant posts. This resulted in 161 legends divided into 3 categories: structural forms, affect types, and content types. The authors determined that these legends have patterns, aka motifs, and can be classified and studied as folklore.
While Reddit is showing clear signs of being an important source regarding digital culture, many of these legends went unnoticed until they were retold, reposted, and referenced in different ways. The authors found that 52% of the most popular links were ignored and overlooked when they were first posted in 2011. Gossip, commentary, and references became one of the most important ways of spreading these links and original sources.
The nature of how these legends spread on Reddit draws some very important parallels to lost media. Reddit legends are folklore that disseminate through subreddits, sometimes with the original artifact linked, sometimes with just the memory left behind. Often, the original source is removed or forgotten. For example, Jeff the Killer is a Creepypasta (Lost Media Wiki, n.d.) that has been circulating for over 20 years with its original source unknown, with a debunked rumor surrounding its origin. Reddit legends can be considered mini forms of lost media as they live through collective memory and folkloric retellings when the original source is inaccessible or unavailable. I am interested in seeing if this phenomenon can create false memories for someone and make them believe they remember something they’ve never seen the origin of when these retellings and remixes become widespread enough.
The feedback I got from Mya and Dina was extremely helpful. I showed them a snippet of the intro to my proof of concept, which will also be the intro to my project. I got some great insight and advice about my sound design, background, and overall aesthetic and tone of my project.
I have a very clear vision for the beginning of my project, more specifically the first 4-5 minutes of it. I was able to bring a part of this vision to life by filming and editing the first half of my intro last week in Studio 2. I am filming the rest of the intro in my apartment tomorrow and Sunday and will have it all edited before class. The part I filmed will serve as a test shoot as I don’t believe it’s what I want for my final project, but it gave me great insight about what I want to do and what I want to change about it. Seeing it on my screen visually helped me understand how I can deliver the vision I want instead of what I have, which I consider progress!
I feel really good about where my project is currently and I’m honestly having so much fun doing. I also have an iconic committee (finally!) who I am very excited to work with.
References
Armstrong, C., & Ruths, D. (2020, July 3). Legends: Folklore on Reddit (Preprint). arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.00750
Lost Media Wiki. (n.d.) Jeff the Killer (lost unedited image of Creepypasta character; date unknown). https://lostmediawiki.com/Jeff_the_Killer_(lost_unedited_image_of_Creepypasta_character;_date_unknown)
mdl70. (n.d.). Slender Man [Photograph]. Flickr. https://live.staticflickr.com/8173/7989638060_daf1d370ed_b.jpg
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