An Examination on the Construction of Neoliberal Subjectivity in the Context of Interactive Cinema

This study examines the role of interactive cinema, which emerged with digitalisation, in the production of neoliberal subjectivity. While traditional cinema's one-way communication structure places the audience in a passive position, both cognitively and physically, the interactivity developed with the possibilities of digitalisation creates a new experience where the audience actively participates in the narrative. The viewer's ability to steer the film's story through their choices transforms them not only into a spectator but also into a performer responsible for successfully concluding the narrative. When evaluated through Marshall McLuhan's ‘the medium is the message’ approach, a communication form possesses the capacity to produce ideological discourses not only through the content it conveys but also through its formal and technological structure. The freedom of choice that forms the basis of interactive narrative reinforces concepts such as individual responsibility, interest-driven ethics, and self-regulation, thereby making the fundamental discourses of neoliberal ideology visible. In this context, the viewer is positioned as an entrepreneurial subject, or ‘homo economicus’, who must constantly improve their situation, evaluate alternative events, and maximise their own interests within the film-game. This transformation in cinema is analysed within the framework of Michel Foucault's concept of ‘governmentality’. It aims to critically examine the relationship between the evolution of communication technologies and dominant economic-political structures.