When ethnic humor goes digital

Bibliographic Data

ID12655808
AuthorsLillian Boxman-Shabtai (0000-0003-4893-6425, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, corresponding author), Limor Shifman (0000-0002-2616-9491, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
Year2013
Volume17
Issue4
Pages520-539
Publication date2013-10-06
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1461444813506972
OpenAlexW2140859370
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited37

This article explores new forms of ethnic humor as emergent in a salient arena of contemporary culture: our electronic mailboxes. We argue that two processes underpin the manifestations of ethnic humor as it ‘goes online’: the global turn and the turn to genre plurality. We examine the implications of these processes through (1) content analysis of 1000 Israeli humorous ‘forwards’ and (2) a grounded analysis of 130 texts representing ethnic groups with varying degrees of proximity to Israeli culture. Regarding the global turn, we found that non-local ethnicities are ‘imported’ to the local symbolic sphere via new forms of humor. Regarding the turn to genre plurality, results indicate that while old forms of ethnic humor typically include explicit stereotyping, new forms introduce a wider variety of stances towards ethnic stereotypes, ranging from their reproduction in visual language to a polysemic stance, and finally to their neutralization

Ethnic group · Linguistics · Political science · Salient · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Anthropology · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Gender Studies · Humor Studies and Applications · Law · Philosophy

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