Dijital Kültür Bozumu ve Kültürel Popülizm: McGuigan’ın “Havalı Kaptalizm”i Çerçevesinde Göstergebilimsel Bir Çözümleme

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 16 Sayı: 4, 272 - 296, 30.11.2025

Şeyma Esin Erben

https://doi.org/10.5824/ajite.2025.04.001.x

Öz

Digital culture jamming draws on the richness of digital materials and the dissemination power of online networks to subvert media messages, as well as the dominant and popular discourses produced by political and economic power actors, through humorous and aesthetic means. This study examines how digital culture jamming transforms cultural images employed by capitalism, including symbols of high culture, through the lens of McGuigan's concepts of cultural and critical populism. The primary aim of the study is to analyze the critical stance that digital culture jamming adopts towards popular culture and to evaluate how such content intervenes in the reproduction or concealment of social inequalities. The study applies a qualitative semiotic analysis, adopting Roland Barthes’ three levels of meaning, denotation, connotation, and myth, to examine four images selected from a carousel post shared on the public Instagram account @canavarkara. The selected post was considered particularly relevant due to its critical engagement with consumerism and populism, as well as its suitability for semiotic analysis. The findings indicate that these visual interventions not only highlight issues such as labour invisibility, surveillance, and social isolation but also demonstrate how they can simultaneously challenge dominant ideologies under McGuigan's concept of cool capitalism. This study contributes to the literature on digital activism by offering a critical perspective on the visibility of power relations and ideological manipulation. Given the study's focus on a single account, its limitations are acknowledged, and future research should further explore the erosion of culture jammers' anonymity, content production practices, and the populist potential of digital culture jamming.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Kültür bozumu , eleştirel popülizm , dijital aktivizm , göstergebilim , popüler kültür

Digital Culture Jamming and Cultural Populism: A Semiotic Analysis within the Framework of McGuigan’s “Cool Capitalism”

Öz

Dijital kültür bozumu, dijital materyallerin zenginliğinden ve çevrimiçi ağların yayılma gücünden yararlanarak siyasi ve ekonomik güç aktörleri tarafından üretilen baskın ve popüler söylemlerin yanı sıra medya mesajlarını mizahi ve estetik yollarla altüst etmektedir. Bu çalışma, dijital kültür bozumunun, yüksek kültür sembolleri de dahil olmak üzere kapitalizmin kullandığı kültürel imgeleri, McGuigan'ın kültürel ve eleştirel popülizm kavramları perspektifinden nasıl dönüştürdüğünü incelemektedir. Çalışmanın temel amacı, dijital kültür bozumunun popüler kültüre karşı benimsediği eleştirel duruşu analiz etmek ve bu tür içeriklerin toplumsal eşitsizliklerin yeniden üretilmesine veya maskelenmesine nasıl müdahale ettiğini değerlendirmektir. Çalışma, Roland Barthes'ın gösterge, çağrışım ve mit düzeylerini dikkate alarak nitel bir semiyotik analiz uygulamakta ve @canavarkara adlı kamuya açık Instagram hesabında paylaşılan çoklu-görselli bir gönderiden seçilen dört görseli incelemektedir. Bu gönderi, tüketimcilik ve popülizmle eleştirel bir ilişki kurması ve semiyotik analize uygunluğu nedeniyle özellikle seçilmiştir. Bulgular, bu görsel müdahalelerin yalnızca emek görünmezliği, gözetim ve sosyal izolasyon gibi konuları vurgulamakla kalmayıp, aynı zamanda McGuigan'ın "cool kapitalizm" kavramı altında baskın ideolojilere nasıl meydan okuyabileceğini de ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çalışma, güç ilişkilerinin görünürlüğü ve ideolojik manipülasyon üzerine eleştirel bir bakış açısı sunarak dijital aktivizm literatürüne katkıda bulunmaktadır. Çalışmanın tek bir hesaba odaklanması göz önüne alındığında sınırlılıkları kabul edilmektedir ve gelecekteki araştırmalar, kültür bozumunun anonimliğinin aşınmasını, içerik üretim uygulamalarını ve dijital kültür bozumunun popülist potansiyelini daha fazla incelemelidir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Culture jamming , critical populism , digital activism , semiotics , popular culture

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