Degree Date

5-2026

Document Type

Dissertation - Public Access

Degree Name

DBA Doctorate in Business Administration

Academic Discipline

Business Administration

First Advisor

Marguerite Chabau, Ph.D

Second Advisor

Colleen Ramos, Ph.D

Third Advisor

David San Filippo, Ph.D

Abstract

The swift growth of streaming services has revolutionized the worldwide distribution of media,

making it possible for non-English and non-English-adjacent content to reach American

consumers on a never-before-seen scale, which is sometimes perceived as an indication of

increasing cultural tolerance. However, while a lot is known about what audiences see, far less is

known about how they really understand and assess these stories. There is a fundamental vacuum

in our understanding of audience reception as a lived, meaning-making process because previous

research has mostly focused on consumption patterns. In order to close that gap, this study

examines how American audiences react to depictions of foreign cultures throughout the entire

streaming process. Based on audience reception theory and consumer culture theory, a

qualitative netnographic technique was utilized to examine 614 social media posts from the

United States that are connected to a corpus of 44 Netflix Titles that are culturally significant

during the timeframe of 2024–2025. The analysis, which is structured based on a user journey

framework (Discovery, Consideration, Experience, Engagement, and Advocacy), views

reception as a dynamic process as opposed to a single response. By tracing how meaning unfolds

across these stages, the study offers a process-oriented account of global media reception in the

streaming era. It contributes to scholarship on cultural representation and media globalization

while providing practical insight into how audiences navigate, interpret, and ultimately assign

value to non-English content.

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