Reality show and pop politics. Who holds power in the network society?

Investigating the paradoxical cooperation between multiple media platforms and their influence on public opinion, the paper describes contemporary technological, cultural, and social changes, with a particular attention to the ways of understanding and practising politics in the contemporary society of the spectacle. The essay focuses on Black Mirror, a British television anthology series that unveils the dark side of life and technology, to investigate the question concerning who holds power in the network society. Particularly, drawing upon the relationship between communication and power, the essay explores in detail the extreme artistic performance that gives life to the first episode of the series - The National Anthem - to shed light on how the logic of the reality show, typical of the contemporary pop politics, has contributed to exasperate the crisis of democracy.