@article{article_1797840, title={“Hear Our Voice, Screenwriter!”: Participatory Culture in the New Media Age and Active Audience of Local TV Series}, journal={OPUS Journal of Society Research}, volume={22}, pages={1254–1268}, year={2025}, DOI={10.26466/opusjsr.1797840}, author={Yıldırım, Nisa}, keywords={Participatory culture, series, local series, audience, audience comments.}, abstract={Participatory culture has led to a higher level of industry-audience interaction in the field of television in the new media age. This research aims to examine the effects of viewer feedback on the duration of characters’ existence in the series, by analizing YouTube comments for the series Masumlar Apartmanı, Kızılcık Şerbeti and Bahar with the netnography method. In all three series, there are side characters whose existence in the story was terminated in line with the audience’s demand. It is understood that the reason for the negative comments in the two examples is about the function of the character in the story, while in the third example, the actor is not considered suitable for the role. Regardless of the reasons, it is seen that in all three series, the audience expresses their demands, knowing that their voices are heard, and that they say that they will stop watching the production if their opinions are not taken into consideration. It is seen that participatory culture in the new media age creates a result in favor of the audience. However, the creators’ need to obtain the audience’s approval at every step may turn into an element of pressure on them.}, number={6}, publisher={İdeal Kent Yayınları}