#rp26 speaker Johannes Franzen: Consumer’s Revenge

From Madame Bovary to Breaking Bad, from Lolita to Till Lindemann – why does everyone have an opinion on everything? Why are conflicts over art and culture escalating more and more often? Literary scholar and researcher at the University of Mannheim Johannes Franzen identified one main reason for this: digitalization. It has significantly changed the way people argue publicly about films, series, novels, games, and music. Anyone who wants to express their opinion today can reach an audience with just a few clicks. This leads to greater participation and also to new forms of aggression: critics are attacked and artists often fall victim to “review bombs” or doxxing. 

Why we develop such strong emotions about our own tastes and why conflicts about them remain an important cultural technique despite everything will be explained at re:publica 2026 and in Johannes Franzen’s book “Wut und Wertung. Warum wir über Geschmack streiten” (Anger and Judgment: Why We Argue About Taste).

Johannes Franzen is a literary scholar and researcher at the University of Mannheim. He discusses cultural topics on Deutschlandfunk Kultur, in the FAZ, the taz, and on ZEIT Online, among others. He is co-founder and co-editor of the online arts and culture magazine 54books and writes the newsletter “Kultur und Kontroverse” (Culture and Controversy).