Director of the Institute of Folklore of ANAS, Doctor of Sciences in Philology Hikmat Guliyev was a guest on the program “Time Machine” on Planet FM. The program included the extensive discussions on current trends in contemporary folklore research, especially new folklore examples emerging in the digital environment.

The following topics and questions were in the program:

• What is folklore and how is it formed?
• The necessity of the creation of Internet folklore.
• Similarities and differences between traditional Azerbaijani folklore and virtual folklore.
• Who are the creators of Internet folklore?
• The manifestation of Dede Gorgud, Koroglu, Molla Nasreddin and other classical images in the virtual environment.
• The advantages and threats posed by digital reality for folklore memory.
• The reasons for the widespread use of the image of Albert Einstein in Azerbaijani-language virtual folklore.

These discussions show that in the digital era, Azerbaijani folklore is developing as both a carrier of traditional memory and a dynamic platform where new cultural trends are formed. The ideas and approaches voiced in the program once again highlighted the multifaceted functions that folklore has acquired in the modern communication environment.