Blurring the Divide : The Role the Internet and the Surge of Online Magazines Have Played in Conflating Matters of Academia and Popular Culture

Abstract

The central focus of my SIP—the blurring of the divide between academia and pop culture—was largely influenced by my own scholarly interests and internship experiences. Since a sole focus on pop culture would not adequately reflect my coursework at K or the theoretical framework that this particular SIP option is heavily reliant on, I chose to incorporate the additional layer of the countless subtleties of writing about pop culture—whether done while asserting one’s identity as a fan, distancing oneself from this identity for the sake of objectivity, or carefully incorporating elements of these two authorial tones to further enrich one’s argument. While I reflect that there is merit to be deemed from writing about pop culture throughout my SIP (contrary to the beliefs of many conventional academics), I also maintain that such merit should not be derived from the belittlement of other forms of writing. Since each style of writing inherently possesses dynamic aspects that separates it from others, I thematize the blurring of the divide between conventional and unconventional forms of literary merit in order to legitimize writing styles that have customarily been subject to harsh ridicule—from personal blog posts to articles written for digital publications that lack the editorial staffs that universally lauded publications possess. At the same time, I hope to remind both the scholar and pop culture consumer alike that all opinions regarding pop culture are valid and no one should be made to feel less than if their own views on pop culture drastically stray from the popular discourse. In doing so, I strive to reinstate the popular sentiment that there is no wrong way to write or think about pop culture.