Νέοι ορίζοντες στις ελληνικές λαογραφικές σπουδές: το διαδίκτυο ως πεδίο παραγωγής, διάδοσης και εκπαιδευτικής αξιοποίησης του λαϊκού πολιτισμού ; New horizons on the greek folklore studies;: internet as a field of production, dissemination and educational exploitation of popular culture

Τhe proposed doctoral dissertation is entitled “New horizons on the Greek Folklore Studies; Internet as a field of production, dissemination and educational exploitation of Popular Culture”.The main objective was to collect, elaborate and reveal elements of Popular Culture which exist in a specific virtual community with the aim to confirm what is claimed mainly by the international bibliography, that is, Folklore is neither limited, nor threatened by internet; conversely, it is constantly enriched and updated, thus, creating a new field named digital Folklore. The dissertation presents the definitions of two notions; one which refers to “virtual community”, being formed by on-line folk-groups, and another one referring to “virtual identity”, a basic element of a virtual community. Their characteristics are analytically presented; their roles, the motives of participating in a virtual community, the written and unwritten rules, the language and the symbolism, as well as the actions which take place in the community. Simultaneously, all the above-mentioned are compared to the elements of the folklore communities respectively. Additionally, internet is approached as a medium through which data concerning popular culture (material and non material one) are transmitted. The dissertation also studies the possibility of using internet in popular culture teaching.For the first time in our country, as far as it is known, this dissertation implements the research method of ethnography in internet, a method which constitutes the continuation of traditional ethnography. It is actually a multimodal research method which makes use of participant observation and free discussion. Regarding the sample selection criteria, the virtual community of Caledon Oxbridge University was chosen because of its organization, ideology, morals and various actions this community undertakes. Coding and classification of the key issues of this study follow. The conclusions confirm what is mentioned in the theoretical framework. The virtual ...