Exploring TV Seriality Through the Lens of Social Media: A Semi-Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The engagement of TV active audiences is predominantly manifest on social media as part of a broad phenomenon called “Social TV.” Through a Semi-Systematic Literature Review, the aim of this paper is to outline the main research lines and gaps in social media research to study TV seriality, a macro-genre experiencing a continual increase in both production volume and global viewership. Through the coding method, the research lines are drawn relying on the aims, methods, platforms and time evolution of the collected publications. Results have shown the high interdisciplinarity of social media research on TV seriality and its prominent focus on the analysis of user behavior. Further investigations should include, but not be limited to, the reception of sensitive themes embedded into the storylines. Nonetheless, future research may encounter challenges owing to recent alterations in Twitter’s (now: X) policies, the predominant social medium utilized for the analysis of TV seriality.