POSITION OF FOLKLORE WITHIN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE STUDIES (Miesto fokloristiky vo vyskume sucasnej kultury)

The article is dealing with the problem of mass media phenomenon in relation with elements of traditional culture. Electronic media are a constitutive feature of the contemporary cultural context, as they strongly influence transformations, which can be observed within folklore. The contemporary 'information community' can be best observed through Internet, where community groups are naturally activated within the virtual reality. The process of searching for folk elements in contemporary culture dignifies the anthropological folklore from using methods, developed within this field to study contemporary mechanisms of understanding the world. It considerably enriches the knowledge about human beings.