Regarder des séries sur Internet

Enquête exploratoire sur les pratiques d’étudiants universitaires à Bruxelles

Abstract

Focusing on Belgian university students using illegal services to watch (mainly American) TV series, this paper offers to take a look at online practices and habits, using a methodology combining “media diaries” filled by respondents during one week and post-diaries in-depth interviews. The concepts of autonomy, participation, and interactivity are brought into the discussion to help us to understand individuals’ behaviours. This research demonstrates the shifts in behaviours and practices when individuals switch from the television to another device (a computer connected to the Internet) to consume (fictional and serial) online cultural content. Moreover, the results show that this autonomous and (to a certain extent) participatory and interactive audience is demanding not only in terms of which TV series they are willing to consume but also in terms of the language and subtitles of the content they consume, the genre of content consumption, and the flexibility to choose the time of consumption.