Abstract:
In the twenty-first century, there had been a significant shift in the area of
technology and mass media. In which both has merged together to form an entirely new
concept based on those respective aspects, by the name of 'new media'. Internet, for
instance, has quickly turned into a powerful source of influence and information
without borders. Contents in the internet are made to be mass produced and consumed
by a large portion of the world’s population which led to the creation of certain shared
beliefs amongst the people. Unfortunately, that element of popular culture had been
overlooked as a subject of research in the study of international relations. Ergo, the
author intend to analyze further the relevance and interconnectedness of popular culture
in international relations using qualitative content analysis method. To answer the
questions on how popular culture help understand towards IR issues through the
content analysis of Netflix’s online series Black Mirror, the findings will be
implementing Critical Theory as the theoretical frame of reference. By the end, it could
be concluded that popular culture does play an important part in international relations.
Not only it could encourage an understanding of relevant issues through media such as
movies, books and music, it could also be an approach to raise awareness on issues that
are not usually notable to many. Popular culture was built on new media platforms
which attract massive audience, therefore it is able to build consensus, norms, and form
a reflection to international relations.
