Syracuse Social Media Experts on Memes, the White House, and Society

While many find humor in memes and fake news surrounding President Trump’s Gorilla Channel story, two Syracuse professors, Jennifer Grygiel of the Newhouse School and Jennifer Stromer-Galley of the iSchool, explained to the New York Times how it shows larger societal themes.

“This is a bit more harmless, but it’s part of a larger challenge,” Stromer-Galley said. “It does raise questions for how we try to empower the public to better sort out what’s true from fiction.” Grygiel added, “I think this is just yet another signal that we live in a social media society now. If there’s a decline in society, there’s probably better examples.”