The Power Relations Of Cyberculture And Its Operation

The generation of a new media always causes reform and development of human culture. The network media which depends on the information and communication technology brings great changes of people's ways of existence, communication and thinking, and a new cultural landscape comes into being. Additionally, under the influence of post-modernist trend, relevant researches on cyberculture become popular. The text reveals the dispersivity, diversity and decentralization of culture power of network from the crossed field of power and culture. It also elaborates the power relationships and operation of cyberculture from the point of criticism and postmodernism, which is important for people to understand the cyberculture.There are many theories about the relationship between culture and power which some western scholars presented long time ago. For example, Francis Bacon'"Knowledge is power", Gramsci's"Cultural hegemony", Michel Foucaultk's"Knowledge and power"and Pierre Bourdieu's"Cultural power",etc. Comparatively speaking, the power of cyberculture has more dimensions, that is, a dominance relationship on the macroscopical meaning, one resource on the middle-level meaning, and a fluid de-centralized network on the micro-level. Because of the characteristics of network, the power appears relatively equal, fluid, interactive and decentralized, etc.Mainstream culture, elite culture and mass culture co-exist in the cyberspace.Due to the quick development of information culture industry, the cyberculture mostly behaves like mass culture. It overcomes the separation of the subjective-objective orientations, combines realistic culture with virtual culture and thus changes the whole patterns of power of culture.The culture is a field maintained and operated through the relationship of power. In order to avoid being far away from the center of power, the body of cyberculture, mainstream culture, elite culture and other culture engage in an intense competition for the cultural capital, and finally a complex relationship of control, compliance and compromise forms.In the cultural production field, there exists a relationship of resistance, compromise and reconstruction between the cyberculture and mainstream culture, which also impairs the power of mainstream culture. At the same time, the cyberculture has shaked the discourse hegemony of elite culture to a certain extent and forced it to loose its pride to the public by changing and upseting the elite culture. In this process, the cyberculture wins more validity.In the media culture field, the cyberculture has constrained expansion of the power of traditional media through cultural production and has changed the logic of literary production. Its tremendous influence attracts more attention from traditional media.Even so, we can't be wildly optimistic about the expansion of power. The cyberculture has taken many measures to fight against the traditional culture for more cultural capital: avoidance but not evading, production of literary text and discourse revelry. However, as culture is the product of the society, it must be subordinate to the politics and ecnomics. Therefore, its rebellion is not the ultimate aim, but a strategy of self growth. In the actual operation, the cyberculture is under intervention and supervision of the economic power and political power all the time.Although the cyberculture can't become the mainstream due to its parasitism, but its rebellion and deconstruction of authority stands for an advance in culture, and it is highly valued in our country. The cyberculture has become one of the most important forces to maintain proper tension and vitality of the culture field and build a harmonious society culture. Anyway, it's meaningful to research the cyberculture from the angle of power.