Abstract
Cobra Kai began in 2018 as a YouTube Premium “television” show to progress The Karate Kid franchise’s narratives. Today, Cobra Kai has three seasons and a fourth in the making; and now hosted by Netflix, its fan base has rapidly expanded and continues to cultivate active social media communities. With the purpose of revealing and (re)constructing Cobra Kai’s political discourse, discourse analysis was utilized to study episode transcripts and emplotment, as well as interview transcripts. In particular, performativity versus action and dialectical tensions stand out as pertinent themes that constitute the show’s discourse. A sample of popular political posts on Cobra Kai’s subreddit (r/CobraKai) supplements this analysis, offering implications related to a larger “woke culture” and managing differences.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Discourse Analysis, Television, Political, Digital Media
