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POPULAR CULTURE IN THE DIGITAL AGE and new media collide" in the digital age of
convergence culture (Jenkins 2006).
EMANUELA PATTI INTRODUCTION
Italian society has also significantly changed from
One of the defining phenomena of most Gramsci's times. Various waves of immigration have
contemporary cultures and societies is the made it more diverse, although cultural integration
increasing penetration of the Internet. Social media, has been difficult. Italians are generally more
including blogs, apps, social gaming, microblogs, and educated but not significantly more than in Eco's
last but not least social networks, have opened the times and they have been exposed to decades of
doors to people's participation in the public arena of mass culture. We are facing old and new
cultural, political and social debates, subverting the emancipatory challenges, considering that Italian
top-down model of broadcasting and challenging the society is still considerably retrograde in terms of
role of elites and mass media. Virtually everyone sexism, racism, and support to civil rights. Scholars
who has access to these digital platforms can express in Cultural Studies have taken Gramsci and Eco's
their opinions, creativity, and social interaction in theories beyond Gramsci's focus on class and power
the form of texts, images, and audiovisual materials, to include gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, and
as well as order food, locate themselves in space, ultimately identity as a composite mix of all these
keep and share records about their health, and so on. categories. Today, the convergence culture of the
The digital convergence of old and new media has digital age raises new methodological questions.
taken postmodern cultural and social practices of “POPULAR CULTURE” FROM MASS MEDIA TO
hybridization between high culture and popular DIGITAL CONVERGENCE
culture to the next level, overcoming class
distinctions in unprecedented ways. "Folk In Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (2015), John
culture(s)", "subculture(s)", "mass culture(s)" and Storey aptly remarks that "popular culture"
"postmodernism" converge on the same media and combines two complicated words, "popular" and
overlap in different ways. In this respect, as I argue "culture", which, in their association, have taken
in this chapter, "digital popular culture(s)" seem to different meanings over time. A mindful discussion
encompass all the definitions previously given to about this topic thus requires, first, a definition of
"popular culture": they are cultures made by the this conceptual category.
people for themselves, as they gather communities
In his 1983 Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and
with similar interests; but they can become mass
Society, Raymond Williams suggested three broad
phenomena, when they reach popularity with or
definitions of "culture".
without the collaboration of mass media. Moreover,
they "remediate" stories, cultural models, ideologies, 1. "culture" can be used to refer to "a general
and lifestyles from other media cultures such as process of intellectual, spiritual and
newspapers, movies, television, radio, advertising, aesthetic development". In this respect, great
comics, as well as literature, theatre, fine arts of the philosophers, great poets and great artists
past and the present. play a significant role in the development of
a society.
The Internet, new media and digital technologies
2. "culture" can be used to indicate "a
have introduced a new cultural dominant which
particular way of life, whether of a people, a
requires a re-assessment of Gramsci's interpretative
period or a group" (Williams, 1983). This
theory and methodology, as well of Eco's semiotic
definition refers not only to intellectual or
approach, in relation to our contemporary social and
aesthetic productions, but also literacy,
techno-cultural scenario. From a media perspective,
festivals, cultural habits, youth subcultures,
if Gramsci's reflections on culture mainly revolved
sport. In a nutshell, this is what we can also
around literature, on the one hand, and lived
call lived cultures in most urban societies.
cultures, on the other, with a special focus on the
3. "culture" can be used to suggest "the works
relationship between class and power, and Eco
and practices of intellectual and especially
reformulated them through semiotics in the context
artistic activity" which contribute to the
of mass media culture, we clearly need to rethink
production of meaning what the
how their methodology can be adapted "when old
structuralists and post-structuralists call
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"signifying practices". According to Williams, perspective, "popular culture" is a site of struggle,
"popular" has instead at least four meanings: based on "resistance" and "incorporation", between
"well-liked by many people", "inferior kinds classes, genders, races, economic powers, and so on.
of work", "work deliberately setting out to In this respect, Stuart Hall (2009), the father of
win favor with the people", "culture actually Cultural Studies, argued that "popular culture"
made by the people for themselves". theories are about the "constitution of the people",
where the people are variety of social groups in
In line with these interpretations of "popular", a
society. Along these lines, as Fiske (2001) noted,
FIRST DEFINITION OF "POPULAR CULTURE", as
"popular culture" is what people make from the
suggested by John Storey, is "culture that is widely
products of the cultural industry-mass culture is the
favored or well-liked by many people" (Storey 2015).
repertoire, popular culture is what people make of it
A SECOND WAY TO DEFINE "POPULAR CULTURE" with the commodities and the commodified
is in terms of a "residual category" with a certain practices they consume.
pejorative connotation: "popular culture" is "the
A SIXTH DEFINITION EQUATES "POPULAR
culture that is left over after we have decided what is
CULTURE" with "postmodernism", a culture which
high culture" In other words, popular culture refers
does not recognize the boundaries between high and
to those texts and practices "that fail to meet the
popular culture, celebrating the end of an elitism
standards to qualify as high culture".
constructed on arbitrary distinctions of culture. For
A THIRD DEFINITION OF "POPULAR CULTURE" is some critics, this is the final victory of commerce
as "mass culture" which developed with the rise of over culture (Storey 2015).
publishing and broadcasting (radio, cinema,
While these theories are still central in the
television) in the 19th and 20th centuries. It results
investigation of popular culture today, most of them
from people's exposure to the same cultural
belong to another era of cultural history; one which
products, values, and lifestyles. Especially from the
was still strongly rooted in the mass media culture of
1950s on, mass culture has been often associated
20th century.
with American culture (and the "American dream")-
whose influence on other cultures has more Mass media such as television, cinema, radio,
commonly been defined in terms of newspapers, and advertising continue to be
"Americanization". influential at a cultural level today. However,
On the wave of the Cold War, various European 1. they have transformed and become part of a
intellectuals, for example those of the Frankfurt system of media convergence.
School and, in Italy, Pier Paolo Pasolini, have seen in 2. they do not fully represent the media
this phenomenon an attempt to spread the capitalist landscape.
ideology and instill wishes and desires which led to
Numerous other digital platforms such as Netflix,
consumerism and cultural standardization. In this
YouTube, WordPress, Instagram, online newspapers,
perspective, "mass culture" is seen as "a hopelessly
video games, collaborate and/or compete with the
commercial culture [...] mass- produced for mass
cultural production of so-called "old" media.
consumption" [...] which represents a threat for
Moreover, in the digital age, popular culture results
either the traditional values of high culture or the
from a variety of practices which can be initially
traditional way of life of a 'tempted' working class".
exclusive of a specific social and cultural category
A FOURTH DEFINITION OF "POPULAR CULTURE", ("the people" or subaltern groups, "communities of
following again the meanings suggested by Williams, fandom", masses, elites), but typically tend to move
is a culture that originates from the people - in this across these class distinctions creating new cultural
case, "popular culture" corresponds to "folk culture". phenomena and products, as I will discuss in more
detail below.
A FIFTH DEFINITION OF "POPULAR CULTURE", as
suggested by Gramsci, is as a "compromise Digital technologies have become endemic of our
equilibrium" between the culture produced by the cultural landscape at many levels: in terms of lived
elites and/or mass media and the emerging from cultures, including literacy, cultural habits,
below, oppositional culture of the people". In this subcultures, social life; in terms of artistic activity;

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and, finally, by shaping the intellectual, spiritual, and perspective is still relevant and what its object of
aesthetic development of society, as the digital turn study would be when it comes to identify power
in the humanities demonstrates. The previous relations, forms of incorporation and resistance and
definitions of "popular culture" seem to all co-exist, epistemologies of otherness. In digital culture,
in a way or another, in the contemporary digital meanings are not only produced at the surface level
society. of representation of contents (stories, images,
audiovisuals), but, as Lev Manovich has very well
Consciously or unconsciously, these cultural
explained in The Language of New Media, also right
practices are in fact "widely favored or well-liked by
in the structural levels which organize and manage
many people" who regularly use them to perform
imaginaries and social relations, namely code,
daily activities to communicate, socialize, work,
interface, software, database. It seems to be still
learn, access and produce knowledge and creativity,
appropriate to argue that in these sites where
entertain themselves, and so on. Very popular apps
"collective social understandings are created",
like Google Maps, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram,
"popular culture" is a terrain on which "the politics
Twitter, Snapchat, Skype, Dropbox, Subway Surfers,
of signification" is played out in attempts to win
LinkedIn, Academia.edu have changed the ways we
people to particular ways of seeing the world (Hall,
interact, speak, gather and disseminate information,
2009). Thus, what are the emancipatory challenges
situate ourselves in space, etc.
we are facing today and in which "apparatuses" and
In their early days, many of these practices were "forms of representations" should we look for the
considered as "avant-garde" in relation to mass elusive core of convergence?
practices and "residual" in relation to high culture-
EXAMPLE
examples include the first experiments of electronic
literature which set the ground for today's blogs, • Internet = Global Village (Marshall Mcluhan)
among other digital genres, as well as the first online • Social media
chat boxes which preceded dating apps and social • Social networks
networks. • Digital convergence
Digital culture(s) have also many features in • Digital popular culture
common with mass culture. Phenomena like social • Commercial culture
media influencers, for example, borrow the cultural • Cultural industry
models of mass media stardom and authorship, as • Digital platforms vs. old media
well as the aesthetic styles of television, cinema, and • Popular application
advertising, but they adapt them to the more typical • Electronic application=new media
informal style of social media where private and • Language of the new media
public spheres mix seamlessly.
Teleserye= pop
However, in the way they express social and behavior
Coco martin=commercial
customs, level of education, linguistic inflections,
and symbolic gestures of localities, one can argue POPULAR CULTURE THROUGH ITS
that they are the new "vernacular cultures". Unlike THEORETICAL LENS
the "folk cultures" we used to associate to non-urban
THE POLITICAL-ECONOMY OF MEDIA
cut-off communities, contemporary ones are often
the combination of national and international mass • According to Hermann and Chomsky's
culture, local and global societies, individual Propaganda Model (1988), a model they
experiences and education. They can be produced by have used to check the various political-
individuals or groups and they are spread quickly economic implications of mass media, there
and widely, if they attract the attention of either big are several filters to use in relation with the
brands, companies, mass media and/or institutions, topic to check the propaganda ma chine of
mass media. These filters are the following:
they reach masses, and they can have a moral,
1. The size, concentrated ownership, owner
political, commercial or educational impact. wealth, profit orientation of the different
Crucially, in this new socio-technological scenario, mass media firms
one may wonder whether a cultural studies
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2. Advertising as the primary income source of • In the Philippines, internet usage
mass media penetration is more than 30% as of 2012 and
3. The reliance of the media on the information is continuously rising (Yahoo-Nielsen, 2013).
provided by the government, business, and • More Filipinos use tablets and mobile
these "experts" funded and approved by phones to access the internet, and with the
such sources and agents of power. rise of smartphones in the country, we can
assume that the projected number can be
Cross promotion
rising exponentially.
is a term referring to the promotion of an • However, the democratization of media, even
advertisement in a very subtle way inside another if away from Hauben's ideal 100%
program, or the like. penetration in society, is still evident in
society, and this is via social networking sites
Vulgarization of art such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
the like.
art forms were popularized by the use of technology
• Facebook is the most widely used platform
and were tailor-fit to
(Yahoo-Nielsen, 2013).
4. exactly serve the taste of the greater
THE AGENDA-SETTING THEORY MCCONS AND
audience, sacrificing its quality in the
SHAW
process
5. Infotainment What is Agenda-Setting?
6. GLOBAL VILLAGE
➢ A theory that holds intense media attention
THE THEORY OF NETIZEN (NET CITIZEN) increases the importance of certain topics,
issues, and individuals.
• The word netizen, though it has been used ➢ It has the ability to tell us what issues are
popularly in current times, is a word from important and has a very powerful influence
the theory of Michael Hauben (1996) is a
of the media.
corrupted term from the phrase "Net
Citizen”.
• As netizens, geographical separation in the
actual reality is replaced by existence in the
same virtual space called the internet.
• Hauben profoundly cautions that the
internet can, nevertheless, be a "source of
opinion" though he said that a netizen can
train him/herself to discern real from
fabricated information.
• But in a certain extreme way, even news
reports are often bent to suit the
"infotainment" genre favored by the general We perceive information the way mass media wants
audience (Demotic Turn, 2010). us to.
• There is a rise in opinionated news as Who uses Agenda-Setting?
reporters tend to bend the news to the
stories, they often favor. An example of this is ➢ Agenda-setting functions mostly in mass
tabloidization or sensationalizing small communication and media
news items and making a big deal out of ➢ We (as an audience to mass media) use
such. agenda-setting to describe important events
• The world's physical limits collapsed via the we have not personally witnessed.
faster streaming of information and ➢ The media uses agenda-setting theory to
communication via the internet, and true inform us on what they think is important to
enough, the effect is limitless and our society.
transcendental. ➢ Well, research over the years believes that
• With democratizing power of media agenda setting theory follows a certain
(Graeme Turner), everyone can voice out sequence:
their ideas via the internet. ➢ The media presents information and
provokes awareness of issues.
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➢ That information then provokes us to change A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF AN INTERNET
our attitudes or even keep the same ADVERTISEMENT
attitudes.
➢ The change in attitude then will provoke
behavior change and the media got what
they were hoping to achieve.

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY

Uses and gratifications theory examines the role of
the audience in making decisions and setting goals
when it consumes media products. Signifiers Signified
Nokia Nokia
DEFINITION
Screen Image of Family
A scholarly definition is provided below: elements extending connectedness
NOKIA hands
"The urban realms model suggests that several Nokia Emphasis on
mutually independent, self-contained nodes of the brand
development will emerge in a large metropolitan name
area, each the focus of its own market area" (Fujii & Background White Sky
Hartshorni, 1995) color Snow
EXAMPLE Color Cold Winter
color
People use media for their own benefit. For example, Form Circular Connectedness
they use it for: form Completeness
Bringing
o Entertainment people
o Social interaction together
o Information gathering Mirroring Extended Connecting
o Emotional release hands people
o Personal identity formation
o Escapism
The two hands in the Nokia advertisement recall the
A MODEL OF SEMIOTICS (FERDINAND DE famous and religious painting the "Creation of
SAUSSURE,1965) Adam" by Michelangelo Buonarroti. The painting,
A semiotic model in the form of a dyad comprised of which is on the Sistine Chapel ceiling of the Vatican,
a signifier and a signified. The signifier may consist depicts God's life-giving act. Thus, the Nokia
of actual objects such as background or lines, advertisement brings to mind God and Heaven, the
whereas the signified is the concept in someone's miracle of creation, and the genius of Michelangelo
mind. (Figure 6). The advertisement's colors play a special
role. First, the blue and white colors remind one of
heaven and sky and, by extension, they bring to mind
a Superior Entity, thus referring back to
Michelangelo's painting. Alternatively, white is also
the color of the snow and draws attention to the
Finnish landscape that is covered by snow during
most part of the year.

The sign includes an octagon, white letters, and red

background as signifiers, whereas the driver obtains
the signified in the obligation to stop the vehicle.

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On visiting Finland and especially Northern Finland

and Lapland in winter time, one is struck by the
extreme beauty of the sky which, like a gigantic
dome, hovers over vast fields and lakes covered with
snow. However, despite the beauty, one also
recognizes within oneself a strong feeling of
forlornness and danger. Getting lost in this
environment.
"Popular culture is power, and whoever wields it to
manipulate minds is likely to find its literary and
technological machinery turned against him when
the minds it has manipulated discover its potency as
a political weapon." (Lumbera, 1984).

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