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New Media & Society
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Email forwardables: folklore in the age of the internet

Marjorie D. Kibby

University of Newcastle, Australia

Email communication fosters an environment where messages have an inherent ‘truth value’ while at the same time senders have reduced inhibitions about the types of messages sent. When this is combined with a convenience and ease of communication and an ability to contact huge numbers of people simultaneously, email becomes a rapid and effective distribution mechanism for gossip, rumour and urban legends. Email has enabled not only the birth of new folklore, but also the revival of older stories with contemporary relevance and has facilitated their distribution on an unprecedented scale.

Key Words: chain letters • electronic mail • email • folklore

New Media & Society, Vol. 7, No. 6, 770-790 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1461444805058161
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?