Television’s changing role in social togetherness in the personalized online consumption of foreign TV

Abstract

This article studies how television’s role in social togetherness has changed in the post-network context, using Taiwanese consumption of foreign programs via online sharing as a case study. Interview findings demonstrate that while audiences celebrated the personalization of online viewing, they sometimes wondered if they would become detached from society if they did not follow broadcast television. Moreover, by using online platforms, audiences achieved a sense of togetherness in two ways: by connecting to others with the same interests in foreign programs and by reassociating with home when they are abroad by consuming domestic programs. While the audiences’ personalization of online viewing is increasingly becoming a common television experience with their acquaintances and/or unknown fellow members, a sense of togetherness was attained, even though it might be less explicit than that generated in the consumption of broadcast television.