ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Culture and Communication
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1692975
From Real Creators to Real Audiences: Tracing the Communication Pathways of Chinese Web Series Narratives
Provisionally accepted
- FSSK, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study investigates how creators and audiences interact in shaping Chinese web series narratives, drawing on reception theory as a guiding framework. The aim is to trace communication pathways that influence narrative development and to examine how audience feedback shapes creative decisions. Using qualitative methods, the research involved in-depth interviews with web series creators and viewers, followed by multi-level coding of the data. The findings show that creators construct an "implied reader" to guide narrative design and adapt their storytelling in response to real-time audience reactions. This dynamic exchange marks a shift from one-way content delivery to a collaborative process of meaning-making. The study highlights the role of digital platforms in transforming narrative practices and provides insights into balancing artistic vision with market demands. These results contribute to a broader understanding of digital storytelling and offer practical implications for enhancing content creation and audience engagement in the evolving digital entertainment landscape.
Keywords: Chinese web series, Reception theory, Audience engagement, Narrative evolution, digital storytelling
Received: 26 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Hasrul and Hassim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shangmingzhu Zhang, zsmznora@gmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.