A Sense of Who we Are: How TV Series Viewing Contributes to Negotiating Couple Identity
(A2021-93585)

AUTHORS

Mathilde Lapostolle, ESCP Business School; Julien Schmitt, ESCP Europe

ABSTRACT

This research contributes to a better understanding of the negotiation processes of couples’ shared identity through consumption. It identifies the factors that influence the different levels of couple identity (collective, relational and individual). Using individual and collective interviews, it examines how couple identity is created, negotiated and enacted through TV series consumption. It shows how (digital) TV series viewing plays a key role in negotiating the collective identity partners desire for their couple (who is we), how this activity shapes the relational functioning of the couple (how we works), and how partners use this activity to affirm the existence of their individual identity within their couple (who I am within we). It underlines the influence of different dimensions of TV series on these three processes.