Introduction: The Intersections of Popular Culture and New Media

Abstract

Some very ordinary but nonetheless very important things happen as popular culture interweaves with new media forms. It is here, in these remediations, that we find some of the defining experiences of contemporary everyday life. These are mainstream experiences that raise important questions about the organisation, relations and ordering of culture. Millions of people on a global scale are engaging with culture via these new media forms as they enchant, distract, entertain, reveal and occupy. Indeed, the intersection of popular culture and new media is at the heart of many of the big social and cultural issues that we face today. From issues of freedom of speech and the right to privacy, through to the massive revenues of the so-called digital economy, to forms of mass communication, expression and moralising, and on to questions about the nature of contemporary social connections and senses of difference.