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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