This document discusses new literacies and popular cultural practices of university students. It presents research on how students engage with popular culture outside of the classroom through electronic media and the internet. The research aims to understand what popular cultural activities students engage in, how these activities are mediated, and what and how students learn through these practices. It reviews literature on literacy as social practice and new literacy studies, which view literacy as occurring in various contexts through oral, written, visual and digital modes of communication.