This study aims to reveal that Korean romantic comedy series available on the Netflix Turkey platform, while creating the perception of offering the audiences a personalized experience, produce standardized content in line with the principle of pseudo-individualism. The demassification function offered by digital media platforms is fundamentally transforming media consumption habits. On the other hand, according to Adorno and Horkheimer’s theory of the culture industry, media content is fundamentally standardized despite its apparent diversity. Although algorithm-based platforms such as Netflix position the audience as a special group with personalized tastes, this study hypothesizes that Korean dramas, known as K-dramas, offer a uniform consumption experience through similar themes, storylines, and character types. In this study, the most-watched Korean romantic comedy series on Netflix have been selected as examples, and content analysis has been applied to the original synopses of the 31 series on the list. The content analysis showed that despite the personalized recommendations offered to the audience; these series shared a similar fictional structure that repeated universal themes such as love, family relationships, and social status differences. The findings indicated that the demassification experience promised by digital platforms coincided with the pseudo-individualism strategy of the culture industry and that the illusion of infinite choice offered to the audience presents a homogenized content pool. This study aims to contribute to the field by critically evaluating the individualistic consumption perception of new media.
Ecem Taneri Ersoy (Fri,) studied this question.