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Digital Carnivalesque pp 33–46Cite as

Digital Times

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Part of the book series: Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education ((CSTE,volume 10))

Abstract

This chapter contains a review of extant literature primarily from communications, political, and performance studies to establish the nature of digital economy as simultaneously layered, multifaceted, convergent, and in constant flux. This generative complexion can be attributed to the emergence of newer social conditions associated with the digital epoch as well as dramaturgical concerns in everyday practices. In particular, this chapter focuses on the aspect of participatory nature of the digital age, the decreasing interest with deliberative rhetoric as a model of communication, and the centrality of performance of online selves as key characteristics of today’s social mediascape. Accordingly, the chapter reiterates the inadequacy of the traditional model in delineating power as dichotomized between rulers and the ruled in explicating the nuanced, fluid, and complex power dynamics as exhibited in the digital realm. In fact, judging from the plethora of Internet memes and viral mediatized contents that circulate online, this chapter concludes by placing prominence on creativity, multimodality, and playfulness as salient performative tropes that are not only drawn upon in the performance of online selves, but are also important signals that shed light in the way power circulates and is expressed in social media.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Hoi-Yi Katy Kan

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Kan, HY.K. (2020). Digital Times. In: Digital Carnivalesque. Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education, vol 10. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2051-8_3

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