what is the pop culture of zaun like?
They have a thriving media ecosystem - more than thriving, really, inundating might be a better word. Zaun’s got its fair share of creatives and an even larger share of hacks that are happy enough to churn out mass-appeal and mass-market drivel that keeps people entertained. Books, magazines, music, radio plays, theatre, even the odd film or two: you’ll find most forms of entertainment in Zaun. And with it, you’ll find ads.
Ads are ubiquitous in Zaun: they tell you what to buy, when to buy it, and assure you that it’s right for you to want... whatever it is, just buy it. Most Zaunites are immune to the relentless advertising - even as it gets more and more insidious with each passing year. (Just look at the advertising of the early and mid 20th century and compare it to where we’re at now, right?) They’ll buy what they’ll buy. Slapping a picture of Dr. Mundo on it and jacking up the price really only works to sell something when you’re a kid, after all... right?
But back to media. Zaun’s tastes are very diverse, and you’ll find any type of genre fiction that you’d like to in the city. There’s probably a slight skewing towards science fiction, though: while Piltover is more often seen as the city that looks towards the future, Zaun’s got its eye on the (smog-covered) horizon as well. Pulp sci-fi’s in full swing - you can find plenty of magazine subscriptions to throw a few coins at, if you’re interested. (Think of things like Amazing Stories.) There’s plenty of other genre-based magazines, too, all of varying degrees of authorial and editorial quality.
Radio plays are also intensely popular. Just like magazines and most other media, they skew towards sci-fi - although, again, most other genres have their place. Zaun broadcasts on both AM and FM, and there are a multitude of stations for news, entertainment, and everything in-between. There’s little governmental regulation on who can broadcast on what frequencies and so it’s not incredibly uncommon for there to be frequency hijackings/intrusions/jammings... but most stations that would be targets have enough might (from money or otherwise) to make would-be troublemakers think twice. Smaller stations and individual broadcasters tend to escape this threat, unless they have a particularly vicious rival.
For what it’s worth, Viktor’s favorite program - not that he would admit it - is one by the name of Завтра, Сегодня, or Tomorrow, Today. It plays on weekday evenings, and is very long-running - since his childhood, in fact.
Playwrights and authors exist for theatre and print, and the trends follow there. Theatre is less popular than it is in Piltover, but it has its following. There’s a burgeoning film industry (with sound and color, due to the wonders of hextech and Zaunite ingenuity) but not many films are made. The ones that are have short run times.
Zaun’s popular music scene trends towards the industrial and heavy - rock, metal, anything loud and bone-shaking is good in their books. There’s definitely a counterculture punk scene that is very dissatisfied with their city-state’s hypercapitalist nature, but they’re more underground. The older generation of Zaunites prefer less... intense... music for the most part, and there’s a space for that too... but it’s falling out of favor in the hustle and bustle of modern life. Regardless, Zaun’s music scene is loud, colorful, and is - if you believe the youth - best experienced while under the influence of one substance or another.
There isn’t much in the way of sports - it’s hard to compete in anything physical when the air is thick with pollution. Chess, however, is a perennial fascination: and Zaun has some exceptional players. A sizable portion of the population tracks match schedules with the same fanaticism that others reserve for sports.
TL;DR: Zaun’s media ecosystem is overwhelming and intense, and advertising is ever-present. There’s about every type of genre fiction under the sun, but sci-fi is the most common. Radio plays are incredibly popular, as are magazines - books follow behind, then theatre, and then film. Zaun’s music scene is intense, in a variety of ways. Chess is popular, physical sports are not.