POP CULTURE
AV Club
"The SCP Foundation Wiki is not involved with the film in any way," representatives for the online horror collective said of A24's V/H/S/: SCP .
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
As conspiracy theories about the new Oscar play from Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu spread, insiders say there’s no song and dance at play here.
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
Amid threats, ticking fees, and heels digging in on both sides, Paramount and California will at least explore the possibility of settling their grudge match.
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
Two parents and their children in Illinois and California have sued the social media giant over unreleased facial recognition software tied to Meta's smart glasses.
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
Reports suggest Jimmy Kimmel is being asked to reduce Live! 's budget by 20 percent to stay on the air for another year.
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
Elephant Graveyard examines the comedy crash-out of the Joe Rogan extended universe, their billionaire buddies, and Carlos Mencia.
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
The network plans to start production in early 2027.
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
The former President posted a portrait of his infamous reaction to the 2001 terrorist attacks on Instagram.
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
A new report offers anonymous insights into the split between the company and the developer.
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
The Going Clear filmmaker lets self-proclaimed genius Elon Musk prove, through his own words, that he’s a con man.
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POP CULTURE
AV Club
The Slow Horses actor had hinted that he was privy to some inside casting news.
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About Pop Culture
What the beat actually tracks
Pop culture reporting follows collective attention: what a large number of people are looking at simultaneously, and why. That includes celebrity, internet formats, fandoms, and the reception of films, music and television once they leave the hands of the people who made them. The subject is not the work but the response, which is why a modest release with an intense following can matter more here than an expensive one nobody discusses. Attention is also the product being sold, since platforms monetize it and the people who capture it convert it into income, so the incentive to manufacture it is constant. The route to fame has also shifted from gatekept to direct: a person can build an audience without a studio, a label or a broadcaster agreeing first, which changes who holds leverage when the deals eventually come.
How a trend is built
Most viral moments look spontaneous and are not entirely. A format spreads because it is cheap to imitate and legible at a glance, which is why sounds, templates and stock phrases travel faster than original work. Platforms amplify what already shows engagement, so an early advantage compounds quickly. Publicists, labels and studios seed material deliberately and pay for placement, and the resulting activity is difficult to distinguish from organic interest. The reliable tell is timing: a groundswell that appears exactly when something is being released is usually part of the release.
Fandom is an organized thing
Fandoms are structured communities with their own norms, hierarchies and vocabulary, not just audiences that happen to be enthusiastic. They maintain archives, run coordinated campaigns, and can mobilize faster than the institutions they are aimed at. That organization produces both the affectionate work covered here and the harassment campaigns also covered here, frequently within the same community. Coverage that treats a fandom as a single actor with one opinion usually misses that the loudest faction is rarely the largest one. Much of the intensity comes from relationships that run one way: an audience can know a performer in great detail while the performer knows nothing of them, and that asymmetry shapes how both devotion and betrayal are felt.