Popular Culture, Social Media, and the Politics of IdentityBy WilliamClapton, New York: Routledge, 2024. 174 pp. $180.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 978‐1‐032‐48641‐3

The convergence of popular culture and politics is a captivating topic that underscores the deep interconnection between these two domains. This relationship also spotlights the role of audiences: their preexisting beliefs shape their consumption of cultural artifacts, thereby influencing the meanings they derive from popular culture. Moreover, this approach positions the audience as a cornerstone in the study of Popular Culture and World Politics (PCWP). The examination of popular culture artifacts is endlessly intriguing, and ongoing research in this area retains its high value. By prioritizing the audience's perspective, this newly published book delivers a more nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between popular culture and global politics, illustrating that their mutual influence is multifaceted, dynamic, and unpredictable. Chapter 1 introduces the concept of popular culture as a political object and provides an overview of the book's structure and case studies. Chapter 2 delves into a critique of the prevailing methodological approaches within the field of PCWP. The chapter examines the limitations of the work by Weldes (2003), and the methodological typologies proposed by Nexon and Neumann (2006) and Carpenter (2016). The author argues that the separation of politics and popular culture in these approaches is a notable drawback, as it narrows the focus to the intersection of popular culture with a limited scope of political issues, actors, and processes, thus constraining our understanding of politics in the existing PCWP literature. A related issue is the insufficient attention given to how popular culture not only shapes world politics and audience meanings but is also subject to political contestation among audiences. Chapter 3 offers a comprehensive exploration of identity politics and the role of online spaces and technologies in framing contemporary debates. Over the past decade, identity politics has emerged as a pivotal aspect of Western societies' political and cultural landscape. This chapter underscores how platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and Facebook have become pivotal forums for political activism and debate. After these three chapters, the book transitions into an in-depth examination of case studies that delve into the digital discourse surrounding a variety of popular cultural artifacts and media, encompassing gaming, video games, cinema, and television programming. Each case study is dedicated to a meticulous exploration of its respective subject matter. Chapter 4 is particularly concerned with the #Gamergate controversy, as well as the Horizon Zero Dawn series and its follow-up, Horizon Forbidden West, albeit with a comparatively reduced focus on the latter title. #Gamergate epitomizes a recent and contentious backlash against women, feminists, and others pejoratively categorized as “assorted SJWs,” and their perceived role in the politicization of the gaming sphere. Chapter 5 meticulously analyzes the persistent critique directed at Paul Feig's 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters, which boasted a cast composed exclusively of female talent. The film's announcement was met with a vociferous online backlash from ardent enthusiasts who expressed a litany of concerns, including apprehensions about the perceived quality of the film and certain creative choices that were decried as “obvious SJW pandering” and “overt feminism.” A contingent of viewers perceived the film's “diverse reimagining” of the traditionally male Ghostbusters ensemble as an imposition of identity politics, suspecting it of being strategically crafted to support Hillary Clinton's 2016 election campaign, thereby prompting a concerted online campaign in opposition. Chapter 6 scrutinizes the multifaceted responses elicited by Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a film that, while lauded by some, was vilified by others as a potential catalyst for the franchise's decline. As with Ghostbusters, the discourse surrounding The Last Jedi was primarily centered on the filmmakers' creative decisions and the allegation that the film was overly imbued with feminist political overtones. Chapter 7 wraps up by discussing the debates surrounding Amazon's LOTR TV series, which premiered in September 2022. Before it aired, there were talks not only about how true it would stay to Tolkien's original work but also about including actors from diverse ethnic backgrounds in important roles. Critics of this decision argue that since Tolkien took inspiration from Europe for his Middle-earth setting, he envisioned a predominantly Caucasian population among its inhabitants. This book introduces an innovative method for examining the interplay of popular culture within the political sphere, which delves into its importance across a spectrum of political contests and dialogues. The role of popular culture in global politics is now widely acknowledged, and the corpus of PCWP scholarship has convincingly shown the cultural underpinnings of political action and meaning construction. Nonetheless, the book posits that the prevailing PCWP research has predominantly concentrated on a constrained array of issues, actors, and objects that are traditionally recognized within the field of International Relations as components of world politics. Although PCWP has contested the restrictive definition of legitimate domains for acquiring meaningful knowledge in world politics, there has been insufficient effort to broaden the conceptual boundaries of what constitutes world politics, who participates in it, and where it unfolds. The extant literature tends to treat popular culture and politics as distinct entities, with the result that the prevailing approaches are primarily directed at comprehending the relationship and intersection of popular culture with a narrowly construed notion of world politics. By concentrating on the everyday political dynamics through which audiences engage with and interpret popular cultural artifacts, the book illustrates that popular culture not only intersects with and mirrors specific political processes but is fundamentally situated as an active participant in political discourse. Moreover, the author conducts a critical review of ongoing debates about identity politics as they manifest across various modern forms of popular culture, including films, video games, and the like.