The rising culture: online pop culture

Introduction
The world is constantly evolving, and the culture is changing at the same time. While the
world is boosting technology and economic development, it has become the era of widespread
use of television, computers, and printers. When electricity and printing become commonplace,
world culture is bound to change. In the past century, the world has undergone a series of
cultural transformations and integrations. We may not realize the changes in pop culture.
‘Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives’ written by Marcel Danesi explains the development
of the pop culture to the readers. It includes the change of pop culture in different themes. The
writer is not only limited to the old cultural history but also analyzed the changing of culture
with different scholar's theories serve as the reference to explain his theories. Before readers
can understand the implication of each pop culture, it is indispensable for them to acquire some
background information. However, the information on each pop culture is complex and messy.
The writer divides each pop culture to different aspects to make it simple. The book aimed at
introducing the pop culture of different decades and how it is changing with abundant examples
of rendering readers. The minor shortcoming of the book is insufficient in-depth discussion
about each example. However, the book has provided different aspects of view which can give
reader sufficient understanding and information.

Key cultural aspects discussed in the book associated with business, television, language and
online pop culture. The theme of online pop culture, which just springs up in the past few
decades, is the main area of concern in this review. Online pop culture is the most Influential
one to society and it is close to everyone daily life nowadays. The rising usage rate of the
Internet, it contributes to a complete connection among society. Not only so, but it also gives
rise to some negative impacts on us. In this review, I would like to focus on the online pop
culture to discuss the impacts of online pop culture brings to us in individual, industry and social
aspects. Online pop culture gives us convenience and trend, but its convenience also brings
some impact on every people. Then, a case study in Greater China would be presented with
individual views to further explore the impacts of online pop culture to China.

Review of Online Pop Culture

The chapter starts with introducing the four steps of changing worldwide civilization. It then
uses Marshall McLuhan's theory to explain the relationship between technology and pop
culture. He pointed out that it is difficult for us to understand how the electronic world has
changed us (McLuhan 1951, 1964).
Individual aspect

Indeed, the Internet is covering more and more people, but at the same time, it will widen
the gap between people. In 1996, there are only 40millions Internet users. Unexpectedly, in
2013, there are over 2.5billions Internet users (Manuel, 2014). The coverage of the Internet can
let message transmit to everywhere, no matter adult, teenagers or even children can receive it
quickly. We cannot feel there is a significant change in the world since the technology is
progressing quickly nowadays. Microsoft, Apple, Samsung are both promoting a wide variety of
new technology to us every day. Yip (2011) pointed out that “any company that creates a Web
site has instant global reach.” Therefore, technology is closed to us. People will think it is normal
and forget what the world is in the past. The world is uniting by the Internet to a “global village”
and internet causes global convergence (Mahbubani, 2012). Internet enabling us to
communicate easily and allow us to purchase and sell things around the world. It connects every
country together by its fast and accurate message passing. We can receive all the information
from the Internet and it allows us to be aware of the breaking news across the world.

However, this “global village” has separated us from others. In the past, alphabetic writing
books, print books are the major medium for storing and exchange knowledge. Reading books,
with a question, it can boost your communication and analyzing skills. Most of the interaction is
by face-to-face. With the Internet, every knowledge can be searched. Google can answer all our
question and we no longer ask others when facing difficulties. We rely on the Internet. It affects
our way of working, thinking and our lifestyle (Lin, Chen, Chang, & Lin, 2013). It changes the
habit of us. According to the book “The Cyber Effect” (2016), if children are grown up with
thousands of online friends and spend most of the time with them, there may not gain enough
experience to face-to-face communication with other and may not handle the social group. The
internet might affect children’s interaction skill and they might suffer from low-confidence. This
is the reason that the writer describes this new media as a “two-edged sword”. It is possible
that in the future, even a baby is swiping the iPad, and it would become an unhealthy social
phenomenon.

Industry aspect

Another theme in this book is that the new media cannot replace its previous stage, but they
are converging. Internet becomes the new stage to deliver pop culture, while the previous
stages have not disappeared. Internet transforms the traditional media, to become the best way
to deliver pop culture (Hu, n.d.). Although the Internet is the most convenient media to deliver,
receive information and create pop culture, the traditional media can integrate with the
Internet to cater to the changing times. Many scholars see online media as a new opportunity
for traditional media such as newspaper to innovate (Mitchelstein, Siles, & Boczkowsk, 2015).
Leaving comments and videos are trends that bring on the Internet. Traditional media is
constituted by words and picture, it needs innovation.

The online news integrates the original culture, message function, and internet’s superiority
together. It could become another direction of development. Many news networks such as BBC,
CNN have uploaded their news video to their website (Hu, n.d.). The online news can deliver
information in real time with more vivid expression. News video can attract more people and it
can become a new business to them. The news video with advertisements probably become
another way for companies to gain profits. Foong (2017) investigated that there are 45% of
adults frequently receive news from their mobile devices. Online news can cover a considerable
number of viewers. Also, according to the Kinsman (2010), video ads is one of the sharpest
growths in revenue. Advertisers generally tend to propagate by video advertisement and
therefore news video is one of their selection. The traditional media would not disappear since
through integration with the Internet, they can maintain their profits in a new way.

Social aspect

The social atmosphere is changing due to the spring up of the internet which have not
mentioned but implied by the book. Posting a humorous photo on Instagram or Facebook can
probably attract more attention than TV shows nowadays. Some YouTubers might popular than
artists. However, YouTube has often charged with not complete policies to supervise their
improper videos such as violent content, or discrimination content (Henderson, 2017). This will
result in the precocity of the children and they may grow up on the internet with misleading
information. The consequence is even a primary student learns how to say foul language since
the Youtuber would not avoid the foul language and there are no policies to supervise them.
Although YouTube is promising to stop the misleading video such as some conspiracy theories,
the violent content has still existed which could affect one's behavior (Newton, 2019). The most
popular YouTuber PewDiePie has 76 million subscribers which mostly are teenagers. He is
involved in anti-Semitism controversy (Romano, 2018). Owing to his immense influences, each
indiscreet speech would affect a considerable amount of audiences. Since the supervision of
YouTube is not strict, this kind of misleading information is easy to influence society, especially
of the children.

Despite its misunderstanding information is easy to spread out, the influences of the internet
can also change the social atmosphere in a positive way. The amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
ice bucket challenge at 2014 is one of the online pop cultures that successfully raises more
concerns about ALS. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge contribute a donation through the internet.
ALS Association receives a total of $7.6 million donations among two weeks (Reddy, 2014). It
gains more attention than usual. The online media plays an indispensable role in promoting the
activity among different internet media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Also, a study
by Li and Wen (2017) investigated that the frequent users of the internet are more likely to
participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge. Celebrity participation in the challenge can raise more
concerns from the public. It is believed that the internet is the most essential elements to
contribute to this activity. The contagion of the internet can contribute to different charity
events and raise the attention of everyone. Similar to the Gangnam Style mentioned in the
book, Ice Bucket Challenge receive an enormous echo. With proper utilize the power of the
internet, it could bring a positive impact on our society.

Case study—Influences of Ai Weiwei and the suppression from Government

While the internet is becoming popular, the number of public events against injustice and the
local government will increase. After 2007, China’s first year of public event, more and more
activist stands out to push public events up through the internet. Ai Weiwei is one of the
examples that will be discussed in the following. He is a Chinese famous artist and human right
activist and is often voice speech through the internet about social injustice (Lao, 2013). “Ai
combines his art and political views with social media sites to spread his message supporting all
people's freedom from authoritarian rule (Ai, 2018)”.

Challenging authority through Internet

Sensitive social issues such as the crisis of social values and public morality are more
attractive and easier to spread out among the internet which can further challenge local
government authority due to its high attention. In 2008, Ai holds the Sichuan Earthquake Names
Projects by compiling a name list of the students killed by the earthquake (Lao, 2013). Ai
believed that most students killed because of the shoddy construction and the government try
to cover up the facts so that Ai wants to give students a fair. Ai first convene helpmate from his
blog to collect the name lists and published the name lists and data from his blog with 17 million
followers (Ai, 2018) which can further trigger to large attention from internet and the
government. Another example of Ai action is in 2009, the local government decided to enforce
netizens to download Greendam which is a software that can filter some sensitive content
which leads to a great deal of unsatisfactory include Ai. Ai then initiates action from the internet
to stop using the internet and assemble in Beijing. The Government then suspended the
implementation (Ai, 2009).

As mentioned in the book and review, the biggest edge of the internet is it can attract a
considerable amount of attention and have a high contagion in a short time. It can change the
atmosphere of the society in a positive way. The action of Ai pushes public events up. He acts as
Netizens and bottom-up “citizens journalists” to supervise the policies of the government and
stand out if there are any unfair events. Since the propagate of the message on the internet
spreads out very fast and the issue is about public morality which is the most sensitive social
issue that can attract attention from netizens, it causes the authorities to have to respond to
public opinions (Dong, Liang, & He, 2017). Therefore, as mentioned by Jocks (2012), the internet
is the best solution for anyone to express themselves freely under no social, economic and
political power. Especially in the Greater China, the right of the public is frequently not been
taken seriously. Internet will become the best or even the only way for people to challenge the
local government authority like the example of Ai in 2009. In society, generally believed that the
local government has a dominant power. It is impossible for people to revolt the judgment of
the government since there are rarely succeeded example that changes the government
decision. However, online counterpower can disrupt dominant communication power (Castells,
2009). It gives netizens an opportunity to express their criticism and unsatisfactory about the
local government. Due to the force of public opinion, the local government has put netizens’
opinion as consideration. The netizens and Ai unsatisfied the use of Greendam to supervise
netizen, thus they utilized their power to express the injustice and suspend the implementation
of the policy.

Internet censorship from local government

In the past, most of the social media such as newspaper and radio can be controlled by the
Government. It is easy for the government to censor the information received by citizens. Now,
the local government can only try to censor netizen’s speech. As aforementioned, Ai published
the name lists of the students who killed by the earthquake due to shoddy construction on his
blog, it gives rise to plenty of discussions. The Government then shut down the blog of Ai due to
his political criticisms and challenges on local government authority (Lao, 2013). However, there
are a wide variety of media that netizen can express their opinions. Ai then turned to Twitter to
broadcast the information and some images about the earthquake and he received tens of
thousands of followers immediately (Ai, 2018). As China government do not have the right to
control Twitter account, they are not able to block the information. Also, through broadcasting,
another method to transmit information is difficult to censor. Therefore, the local government
has to arrest Ai to prevent him from publishing taboos of local government (Ai, 2018).

The ways of online censorship in China is mostly by filtering devices and blocking some
foreign websites such as Facebook which may contain some political criticism on China
government. However, it is difficult to block all the sensitive information even if the government
only focus on blocking the taboos’ information. It can only prevent some normal netizens from
searching the taboos. However, for the activists, there are many ways for them to get rid of
censorship such as Ai uses another website Twitter to broadcast this kind of information. Once
the information is spread out, it never stops. “The Internet has made it impossible for the
Chinese government to fully implement its policy of censorship (Ai, 2009)”. The government
cannot stop people from receiving information and express their views because of the internet.
Therefore, I believed netizens in China would become more and more critical that direct
criticism of local government may more frequently occur in the future if the government does
not change its censorship policy. The local government arrested Ai for a few months while they
cannot arrest and supervise every netizen. This is not a long-term approach and thus the greater
China have to strike a balance between freedom of speech and some taboos. Some may argue
that broaden freedom may lead to further conflict such as Occupy Central in Hong Kong.
However, it can prevent direct conflict as if speech can reach a consensus and the aim of Occupy
Central is peaceful and reach a consensus with the government.

The Internet can link countries together with the enormous attention

Instead of arrestment, the local government also claimed Ai owned few millions of penalties
because of tax evasion. This news spread out worldwide immediately and attract a considerable
amount of attention. Supporters of Ai from different countries then sent a great deal of
donations to Ai. There are nearly 8.7 million of donations and he also received a symbolic
donation from the German government’s human rights commission of about €100 (Ai, 2018).

Similar to the Ice Bucket Challenge, an online video or a message can attract substantial
attention from worldwide. It is much more attractive than traditional TV. The influences of the
internet are tremendous. The Internet can connect every country together. The supporters from
worldwide, even the Germany government show their supports to Ai. The information and news
of countries become transparent. The local government may not affect the local netizen, but
they cannot ignore foreign public opinions. Otherwise, the local government would be criticized.
Thus, the rise and extension of the internet give more pressure to Greater China and it would
affect their policy implementation. Greater China cannot implement policy without public will
like the Mao Zedong era. The society is like a “global village” which allow better connection
among each other from a different country. It can easily to promote different activities as the
internet can attract enormous attention. Netizen can raise help from the public easily than
before and it can gain a great positive effect such as an immense concern worldwide.

Conclusion
After reviewing the book, it gives us a great deal of inspiring information about pop culture. It
includes numerous convincing theory and example to introduce the development of each pop
culture in the past century. It inspires readers with different views on each pop culture and it is
a valuable resource to study pop culture. The book includes the comparison and explanation of
different decades’ culture and its diversification. The online pop culture can be seen as a new
culture which replaces and integrate with traditional social media to be new pop culture. The
development of the internet is very fast nowadays, and it would bring different impacts to the
society. It surprised me that the influences of the internet are tremendous, and it can even
affect the ruling of the local government. The online pop culture can now integrate with music,
drama, business pop culture to create a brand-new culture like the upsurge of Taobao. I
believed in the future, the influences of online pop culture will be continued to increase.
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