Silly News About Cats Predates “Grumpy Cat” Era
Since his image first appeared on Tumblr in 2013, Lil Bub the cat has gone viral, generating more than one million likes on Facebook. (Wikipedia Commons)
It’s hard to venture online with seeing something cute about cats --- grumpy, keyboard and many other varieties.
But are lightweight items about cats strictly an Internet phenomenon? No, says Matt Ehrlich.
The University of Illinois journalism professor (and former WILL newsman) has actually made a study of felines in the news.
In an interview with Rachel Otwell for Illinois Public Radio, Ehrlich says newspapers were providing cat coverage long before the birth of online media.