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Both role-playing game tie-in novels and adventure modules are little-studied and under-theorized topics. Whereas a tabletop role-playing game as a medium is participatory, interactive and narratively open-ended, the novel presents a fixed narrative. When a module is adapted into a novel, this forms a certain tension. This article examines the novels The Temple of Elemental Evil (Reid 2001) and White Plume Mountain (Kidd 1999), adapted from modules of the same names, and the ways that they engage in dialogue with the original texts, as well as how they form a part of the greater realized world of Dungeons & Dragons. These ways include cartographic storytelling and the logic of unfolding (Caracciolo 2019) in how the mapped areas of the module are presented to the novel's reader, as well as the palimpsest, the doubled pleasure (Hutcheon 2013) of experiencing two texts simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this editorial, the editors introduce the 12.2 volume of The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture. The dynamic and interdisciplinary nature of the field is discussed with reference to the collection of articles within the volume, highlighting the malleability of popular culture in all its transdisciplinary forms. The editors provide a summary of the seven articles included in the volume, which collectively represent diverse critical discussions of the field across sociopolitical, socioeconomic and sociocultural artistic realms. The articles examine the evolving realms of the monstrous, the mythic, the heroic and the historical through various mediums like television, film, characters and historical moments. The editors then conclude by offering a summary of the three book reviews included in the volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to make a connection between two fields, that usually operate in separate intellectual contexts: critical research on heritage as a social practice and the study of historical and fantasy fiction, concentrating on renditions of the Middle Ages. Both the construction of heritage and the creation of a fictional narrative are ways of processing of the past, although, at first sight, opposites. Claiming a site as heritage and therefore as determining a community's identity elides the distance between past and present, whereas the authors of historical and fantasy fiction are keen to stress the exotic nature of the Middle Ages. Yet, the article argues that these practices operate on a sliding scale and asks the question whether the telling of a fictional tale about the Middle Ages might be a heritage practice in itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) informed genre theory, this paper investigates the interplay between narrative and analytical representations of the past in texts used for history-educational purposes. In this paper, it is argued that the role of narrative merits further attention in history genre descriptions. Thirteen history texts, selected from a lower-secondary history-instructional unit about European colonization, are examined. The examination of stages, narrative elements, and the way historical significance is expressed in these texts arrives at a re-calibration of the historical recount genre suggesting four distinct historical recount types with different configurations of a narrative-analytical interplay. The findings have implications for our understanding of the role of narrative elements in history texts, and further for genre-based approaches to instruction that concern reading and writing history texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The table of contents and editorial advisory board are presented for the October 2021 issue of the periodical "Journal of Popular Culture."

The table of contents and editorial advisory board are presented for the August 2021 issue of the periodical "Journal of Popular Culture."

Among the variety of communication possibilities between home and school, face-to-face conferences. The present study focuses on a sub-genre that can be defined as a "students developmental conference": a meeting involving the students, family representatives, and where the main goal is to support students' development and self-analysis. We propose a genre matrix and analyze the genre knowledge of such conferences among Estonian teachers and parents by using focus group interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Friedrich Kittler’s conception of the intersection of love with modern technology and illustrates the theoretical insights gained by considering Spike Jonze’s film Her (2013). The German media theorist Friedrich Kittler (1943–2011) was among the first to study the discursive and material implications of modern technologies. Recent scholarship has stressed Kittler’s indebtedness to Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of technology. Accordingly, Kittler thinks through the latter’s contention that it is in and through modern technology that human beings are possibly confronted with ‘truth events,’ in which the particular time-specific ‘self-unconcealment of being’ takes place — and this unconcealment would not least materialize in the realm of ‘love’ (Gumbrecht 2013; Kittler 2014; Weber 2018). In this article, I focus on the theoretical examination of Heidegger’s philosophy of technology in general and the concomitant notion of ‘enframing’ in particular to shed further light on Kittler’s reflection on love that pervades the latter’s entire oeuvre. The article then interrogates whether, and under what circumstances, modern technology might foster said ‘truth events’ by focusing on: first, love among human beings, second, love among technological beings, and, third, love between human beings and technological beings. Thereby, Spike Jonze’s critically acclaimed science-fiction drama Her, depicting a romantic relationship between a human being and a computer operating system, serves as a reference point in illustrating Kittler’s multifaceted conception of the nexus of love and modern technology.

The author reflects on 50 years of popular culture studies in regard to the Popular Culture Association (PCA), the American Cultural Association (ACA), and the periodical "The Journal of Popular Culture."

The article focuses on the work of professor of popular culture Ray Browne, specifically his subversive vision and popular fiction, and how it influenced the subversive culture of heroic fantasy for American author Karl Edward Wagner and within his novella "Reflections for the Winter of My Soul."

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss the topic of archives and popular culture within the issue.

A personal narrative is presented in which the author discusses her experiences at the 1973 Popular Culture Association (PCA) conference.

Black metal, at first seen as a controversial subculture, became in medial space gradually emancipated with other manners of mainstream artistic expression, balancing the visual focus of the scene with its radical ideology. The stabilization of black metal's position, however, would not occur if not for the scene's attempt to include the modified elements of mainstream culture into its own subcultural structures. This appropriation in Scandinavian black metal has often been channeled through the reuse of motifs and artworks originating from regional heritage, as the genre excerpted not only a visual approach toward familiar themes but also internalized their sociocultural backgrounds. Thus, depending on the method of reuse of a particular text, the revival of art in the subcultural reality modified its original meanings, while interacting with the new postulates of the black metal scene. Such appropriative tactics determines autopoietic dynamics of black metal, locating sources of its collective and individual identity in themes already acknowledged by artistic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years Physical Cultural Studies (PCS) (Andrews, 2008) has grown in the United States. This form of radical inquiry has been heavily influenced by the British Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies. PCS research has focused on the various ways the corporeal has been a/effected by, and, indeed, (re)informs the contemporary socioeconomic context. However, while theoretical rigor has long been the norm in American PCS, I argue that the critical (public) pedagogy that radically contextual Cultural Studies has always called for has been a little slower in developing. As such, I will demonstrate how Henry Giroux's influence in, on, and for critical pedagogy has more recently become and should be an essential component of PCS--particularly in our classrooms. As such, I will provide examples outlining how critical pedagogy informs my classroom practices to begin the dialogue about what constitutes good pedagogical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within this paper we offer what is hopefully both a suggestive (as opposed to definitive) and generative (as opposed to suppressive) signposting of the ontological, epistemological, and methodological boundaries framing the putative intellectual project that is Physical Cultural Studies (PCS). Ground in a commitment toward engaging varied dimensions or expressions of active physicality, we deliberate on an understanding of, and approach to, the corporeal practices, discourses, and subjectivities through which active bodies become organized, represented, and experienced in relation to the operations of social power. Further, drawing on Toby Miller, we suggest that this approach requires a motivation toward progressive social change. We consider the political and axiological contingencies of PCS, how it is differentiated from the "sociology of sport," and how we may produce the type of knowledge that is able to intervene into the broader social world and make a difference. We are sure many will disagree—perhaps with good reason—with our assumptions. Indeed, such differences are welcomed for we feel that there is greater progressive potential in a field in tension, in healthy contestation, and, in which debates surrounding ontology, epistemology, political intent, method, interpretation, expression, and impact flow freely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following criticism leveled at sociologists by Chris Rojek and Bryan Turner in “Decorative Sociology: A Critique of the Cultural Turn,” this article identifies a troubling absence of systematic contextualization in sport sociology. In addressing this issue, I begin by describing the role of history and context in sociology and conclude that the discipline should take history more seriously, not least by giving context greater due. I then engage the debate as to whether radical contextual cultural studies or social history offers the best explanation of context. Here I argue for the latter. In justifying my position, I adapt a model employed by the conservative social historian Arthur Marwick in “The sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c. 1958-c. 1974,” to contextualize a contemporary cultural phenomenon, the female boarder (i.e., the female surfboard rider, skateboarder, and snowboarder). Ultimately, this paper illustrates that the systematic and transhistorical tools developed by social historians have the potential to facilitate a more all-encompassing contextualization of cultural phenomena, to examine multiple historical conjunctures, and to help sociologists take time and change more seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the religious turn in Renaissance studies. Cultural studies work from the seemingly straightforward assumption that religion is an aspect of culture. Religion's absolutist claim to some form of universal validity is foreign to the relativism of culture, which is by definition founded on particulars. By separating religion from culture on the basis of its bid for universality, the religious turn re-affiliates religion with thought.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the relationship between political culture and popular culture.

This article explores how Game of Thrones can be used as a pedagogical tool to understand the social model of disability and its essential claim that it is society that disables individuals. Through analysis of main character, Tyrion Lannister, this article works to frame an understanding of disability as socially constructed identity and reveal how the concept of a 'normal' body is also a social construction. This article also explores the pedagogical implications of dwarfism as a stigmatized identity in Game of Thrones. Not only can this analysis be used as teaching exemplar to help further understanding of the social model of disability, it can challenge instructors to rethink the ways in which their pedagogy creates a classroom experience that alternately enables or disables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of "a sport sociology that matters" requires sport sociologists to confront and make fundamental decisions about major imperatives and challenges that implicitly or explicitly can be found in recent work in the field. Five major imperatives are discussed: the relevance imperative, the cultural interpretive imperative, the critical imperative, the engagement imperative, and the application imperative. While the list is not assumed to be exhaustive or definitive, these imperatives are believed to be sufficiently provocative to pose significant challenges to conventional approaches to sport sociology and perhaps general sociology as well. The imperatives are discussed in relation to two major recent controversies in and about sport sociology, concerning the need for a cultural studies approach and the need for a more applied sociology of sport. The implications and risks of accepting the challenges implied or stated in the imperatives are assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses critical and cultural studies approaches to popular media analysis. The concept of ideal subject position is presented as a useful tool for the analysis of media texts. Applying this concept to a case study of Sports Illustrated supports the argument that Sports Illustrated texts beckon consumers who are white, Western, affluent, Christian, heterosexual men. The political implications of this analysis are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has often been asserted that the sociological study of sport is confronted by a theoretical and methodological malaise (Beamish, 198 1 ; Ingham, 1979). In the spirit of this type of inquiry, it is argued that the developing field of cultural studies can provide some provocative frames of reference for understanding the multidimensional nature of sport in society. The first section of the paper briefly traces and critiques some of the major theoretical and methodological developments in North American sport study. The midsection of the essay introduces the related field of cultural studies, and suggests a number of ways in which it might aid our understanding of the relationship between sport, culture, and society. It is asserted that cultural studies can provide an effective critique of elitist definitions of culture, in addition to making available the conceptual tools necessary to link the production of cultural forms (such as sport), to broader social and political questions. The final section of the paper attempts to sketch out a plausible framework for integrating cultural anaylsis and sociocultural criticism into professional schools of sport science. Such an objective ultimately involves reinterpreting and analyzing the scientific basis (and bias) of contemporary physical education departments, while demonstrating the necessity for a critical/historical/interpretive component of sport study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research article is a staple genre in the economy of scientific research, and although research articles have received considerable treatment in genre scholarship, little attention has been given to the important development of Registered Reports. Registered Reports are an emerging, hybrid genre that proceeds through a two-stage model of peer review. This article charts the emergence of Registered Reports and explores how this new form intervenes in the evolution of the research article genre by replacing the central topoi of novelty with methodological rigor. Specifically, I investigate this discursive and publishing phenomenon by describing current conversations about challenges in replicating research studies, the rhetorical exigence those conversations create, and how Registered Reports respond to this exigence. Then, to better understand this emerging form, I present an empirical study of the genre itself by closely examining four articles published under the Registered Report model from the journal Royal Society Open Science and then investigating the genre hybridity by examining 32 protocols (Stage 1 Registered Reports) and 77 completed (Stage 2 Registered Reports) from a range of journals in the life and psychological sciences. Findings from this study suggest Registered Reports mark a notable intervention in the research article genre for life and psychological sciences, centering the reporting of science in serious methodological debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History education stakeholders in England have consistently judged that some students find formal historical writing prohibitively difficult due to the demands of constructing an extended argument. While policy makers have agreed students need support in their historical writing, recurring themes in centralised resourcing have been wastage, incoordination and replication. Furthermore, two concurrent but largely disconnected discourses have developed and promulgated initiatives relevant to students’ extended historical writing: ‘genre theorists’ and the ‘history teachers’ extended writing movement’. Despite certain goals held in common participants in the two discourses have tended to talk past one another with concomitant issues in resourcing. Unsystematic,cross-fertilisationbetween the discourses has led to cycles of genre theory being collectively discovered, forgotten, and rediscovered by history teachers with knowledge not being built cumulatively. Furthermore both discourses have independently developed similar initiatives in a form ofconvergent evolutionresulting in duplication of labour. Finally,divergent evolutionhas occurred where genre theorists have advocated approaches that are increasingly redundant for history teachers’ requirements. A more activist stance is therefore required to ensure meaningful inter-discursive communication between genre theorists and the history teachers’ ‘extended writing movement’ to ensure efficacy in developing approaches to improving students’ extended historical writing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author describes how the production and reception of popular culture can be studied in secondary classrooms using Wendy Griswold's cultural diamond to better understand the homogenizing of content and the limiting of alternative viewpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests that narrative engagement (NE) in entertainment-education (E-E) narratives reduces counterarguing, thereby leading to E-E impact on behavior. It is, however, unclear how different NE processes (narrative understanding, attentional focus, emotional engagement, narrative presence) relate to different thought types (negative or positive; about the narrative form or about the target behavior) and to E-E impact. This study explores these relations in the context of alcohol binge drinking (BD). Participants (N= 172) watched an E-E narrative showing negative BD consequences, thereby aiming to discourage BD. The main findings were that the E-E narrative had a positive impact on discouraging BD on almost all assessed BD determinants such as beliefs and attitude. It was shown that attentional focus, emotional engagement, and narrative presence were associated with BD-discouraging impact, albeit on different BD-related determinants. No evidence was found that negative thoughts about BD mediated these associations. From this, we conclude that attentional focus, emotional engagement, and narrative presence were important for E-E impact but that negative thoughts about BD did not play a role therein. The study’s empirical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the role that teaching of empathy plays in popular culture education, including the changes to course syllabuses that allegedly forego creative spaces for classroom discussion. An overview of course objectives in popular culture pedagogy, including allowing for teacher and student negotiations, is provided.

The article presents an interview with Carolyn Miller, the founder of North American rhetorical genre studies, a sub-field of rhetoric and composition, discussing her essay "Genre As Social Action," the differences between genres and forms and her thoughts on pedagogy.

The article discusses what the authored learned by analyzing a friend's photograph on the Facebook social networking service which depicts several learners writing their answers to the questions that appear on their final examinations, and it mentions how the students in the photograph were completing short essays on several British popular culture and literary titles including "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." The author's experiences while teaching a similar course are also examined.

This article sheds light on hardcore punk's racial politics of taste within the framework of racial discourses in Reagan's 1980s America. The first wave of hardcore punk was composed almost exclusively of male, white, suburban youth and often referenced white supremacist imagery with various political intentions. The goal of my article is to investigate hardcore punk's potential to deconstruct the hypocrisy of a seemingly 'colour-blind' society by means of subversive appropriation of white power imagery. I will formulate a hardcore punk's racial politics of taste to closeread the songs 'Reagan Youth' and 'John Wayne Was a Nazi'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the existence of a large literature on the use and effectiveness of simulations as part of the active learning pedagogical toolbox, simulations have yet to achieve wide adoption rates among college instructors. One of the principal constraints is time: traditionally, most simulations require extensive time for the faculty to design, prepare, and use in the classroom setting. This article examines two design features of simulations aimed at solving this problem—portability, where simulations are designed as a framework that can be used for different subjects, classes, and disciplines; and bootstrapping, or the tying of the simulation content to commonly known fictional or pop-culture scenarios. Combined, these two features can reduce some of the barriers to simulation use in the classroom. We conclude by illustrating both principles with a sample simulation called "The Trial of Goldilocks." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of theory and pedagogy within popular culture studies. An overview of popular culture course curricula and syllabuses, including in regard to efforts to induce participatory learning, is provided.

The article discusses popular culture studies within the context of the decline in humanities and English literature college graduates, including in regard to the academic humanities' relationship with popular culture studies.

The article discusses the analysis of contemporary popular culture in the academic publications. Topics mentioned include the relationship between identity and culture in British and European culture, the development of serial narratives in reality television and the cultural infrastructure of national identity.

The article discusses the reasons for considering public pedagogy relevant to Whedon Studies and analyzes the films "The Avengers" from Marvel and "The Dark Knight Rises" directed by Christopher Nolan as competing public pedagogies.

In this article, we describe how literacy strategies can be adapted for playing (and reading) video games-games that embed disciplinary content in multimedia texts. Using close viewing and guided playing strategies with online games and simulations, we share ideas for helping students navigate and comprehend multimedia texts in order to learn discipline-specific vocabulary and concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Miller (1999) explained, “it is increasingly important for educators to take seriously the processes by which media texts are produced and disseminated, and to understand the ways in which media images and constructions pervade all our lives” (p. 234). Taking popular culture seriously means making a purposeful commitment to bring popular culture into the classroom. Rather than scripted instructional strategies based on generalized research, context-driven critical approaches are needed to empower particular learners to engage with popular culture in in meaningful ways. However, an understanding of popular culture and its pedagogical functions is necessary to provide a foundation for developing these approaches to bringing popular culture texts into classrooms. Toward that end, in this article, we explore the depth and breadth of contemporary popular culture, describe some of the ways that popular culture functions pedagogically, and outline a framework for self-study that, when practiced by educators, can serve as a locus for instructional decision-making and a catalyst for enacting critical teaching and learning approaches we call “pop culture pedagogies.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rapid development of new media, especially the Internet, triggered major changes in culture and caused a general change in the status of texts. These changes call for a new folklore genre theory. A word is no longer the only element that builds folklore texts when they enter the Internet - the new multimedia space. On the one hand, the phenomena known as e-folklore, combining different means of expression, show similarity to traditional folklore (due to anonymity, collectivity, multivariant dimension and emphasis on the value of tradition), and on the other - they are radically different due to their unique dynamism. New technologies successfully stimulate creative activity of the network users, showing the signs of folklore activity. As a result, not only are traditional genres subject to progressive modifications and changes (e.g. chain letters, fake warnings against viruses, urban legends, rumours, conspiracy theories, miraculous events, e-revelations), but also new forms and genres (new Internet-based humour, photoshopping, Internet memes, blogs, chats) as well as the so-called visual folklore phenomena are created. The users' activity on social networking websites is also important. It enriches the structure of contemporary folklore messages and at the same time strengthens the power of emotions and imagination of the virtual community. Furthermore, the modern folklore, functioning in the media context, creatively uses the popular culture content. In this situation, it is necessary to analyse the context of contemporary folklore- creating situations, inspiring not only the existence, but also transformations of folklore genres understood as models of specific communication situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to outline a general approach to Genre Theory, focusing on a Register and Genre Analysis of some business texts. The analysis is centered on a text regarding the anti-monetary globalization of the European Union at the beginning of the European Monetary Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how popular culture theory can be used in postconflict situations to raise awareness about human rights violations. This case study investigates a media narrative produced by the Memory Center in Colombia, about a political assassination of a community leader. On February 12, 2009, Luis Arango was murdered in the Colombian region known as Magdalena Medio. Arango was a fisherman and a leader of local and regional fishing communities struggling to defend wetlands and natural environments from encroaching cattle and agribusiness economies. Arango was murdered to stop his leadership and environmental agendas. Arango’s assassination was selected as an emblematic case that illustrates well how Colombia’s armed conflict impacts community leaders trying to advance social justice agendas. This article explores how a new understanding of “the popular” was used to frame a media narrative about Arango’s case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has two aims. The first is to make the case that the ‘universe of the mind’ imagined by Yuri Lotman may be considered as a foundational model for cultural evolution (population-wide, dynamic, autopoietic, self-organising adaptation to changing environments). The second aim is to take forward a model of culture derived from Lotman’s work – a model I call ‘the clash of systems’ – in order to apply it to creative industries research. Such a move has the salutary effect of putting the ‘universe of the mind’ literally in its place. That place, now, predominantly, is in the city. Thus, the article uses Lotman’s model of the semiosphere to link different complex systems, principally the semiosphere with that of the city, in order to explore the productive potential of encounters – clashes – between different systems. Applying these insights to the field of creative industries research, the article proposes that creative culture in the globalised, urban and web-connected era can be characterised as ‘urban semiosis’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Yuri Lotman’s terms intertextual relationships as active dialogues among texts and cultures should be the starting point for an analysis of the concepts of intermediality, cross-mediality and transmediality. This article considers adaptations and remakes as intermedial processes and remix practices as transmedial ones. The article demonstrates how the processes of transposition, remake and remix may sometimes be only partial, or in other instances they may shift towards entirely different textual systems/levels. At metasemiotic levels, the strategies that build the narrative worlds may either conceal or emphasize the interdependent relations between source and target texts, as well as between their cultural semiotic systems and their emergent ‘metatexts’ of self-description. In the second half of the article brief semiotic analyses will be presented in order to investigate mechanisms of the intermedial and transmedial networks that start from a literary text, Don Quixote by Cervantes, and continue to cinema and new digital media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What has been labelled ‘New Horror’ cinema has opened up its boundaries to incorporate signs specific to social and political events that accompanied and followed the events of 9/11. The reality of terror is transported into the fictional universe of horror. This article presents an interpretation of New Horror cinema using Yuri Lotman’s theory of the semiosphere and Wilma Clark’s extension of his theory in order to engage in a critical rethinking of how genres intersect with culture. The primary focus is on contemporary horror films that function as allegories that address post-9/11 and, in turn, to apply Lotman’s theory of the semiosphere and the concept of cultural ‘explosions’ to account for the generic shifts that have transformed the structure of the horror genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convergence of digital and multimodal cognitive technologies offers the possibility to interact in an ‘on-line’ cultural process mediated by new ways of representing our thoughts, emotions, ideas, beliefs, opinions and behaviours. Such technological integration not only alters and introduces innovations in the interactive and representational modes of networked media, perhaps inducing changes in our cognitive functions, but also conditions the global cultural dynamics by potentially organizing, funnelling, tagging and ‘semantically’ predigesting knowledge through the ‘intelligent’ digital technosphere. The ecology of ideas in such complex and accelerating semiotic space will present highly contradictory and dissonant tendencies in cultural processes. This may pose great difficulties for individuals, communities and whole cultural layers when trying to reconcile such tendencies with a sustainable direction that does not disrupt the life-support systems and the cognitive (and physiological) health of individuals and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his studies of culture, Juri Lotman implicitly expressed several ideas that have been rendered explicit by the contemporary mediasphere. The aim of the current article is to explicate a link between Lotmanian cultural semiotics and transmediality as one of today’s more innovative communicative practices. Transmediality is hereby located in the context of cultural autocommunication as a mechanism serving both creative and mnemonic functions. Thus, the notion is related not only to the questions of textual construction but, even more importantly, to text’s processual existence in culture in diverse media languages and discourses over time. By explaining the roots and developments of Lotman’s concept of autocommunicativity, which is central to his understanding of culture as a whole, the article simultaneously indicates the areas of his cultural semiotic studies that we consider relevant and fruitful for contemporary research into transmediality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the phenomenon of power in the process of media evolution. It argues that Juri Lotman’s ‘semiotics of culture’ is not only useful for interpreting this complex process and the role societal power might have in this, but it might have a potential to innovate the mainstream of western media and cultural studies. The article demonstrates the way to apply Lotman’s framework to interpret the evolutionary dynamics of media and proposes how the textual dynamics of cultural change can be interpreted to contribute to the social dynamic – to the dynamics of social organisation and power relations among social agents. Lotman’s framework is put also into dialogue with the western path-breakers in de-ontologising societal power: Michel Foucault and Niklas Luhmann. The article puts a focus on Lotman’s core concepts such as auto-communication and dialogic communication, and demonstrates how these can be seen to facilitate the heterogeneity (divergence) of systems as well as their striving for homogeneity (convergence). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]