FROM AUDIENCE TO USER. Analisi comparata dello statuto spettatoriale nel consumo in streaming su portale.

This research investigates the statute of spectatorial subjectivity within portal-based streaming audiovisual fruition through a comparative perspective based on an ethnosemiotic methodological approach. The research starts with a survey of the disciplinary fields addressed — Media & Production Studies, Distribution Studies and Platform Studies —, with the speculative background surrounding the philosophy of the digital, discussing the ethnosemiotic approach that informs and binds together the heterogeneous methodological stratification adopted; the work proceeds through a broad theoretical formalization of the functioning of the "streaming portal" object, underling how it concurs in the construction of its spectatorial subjectivity through the practice here defined as medial encounter. The obtained theoretical model is then applied in the description of three global case studies - Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+, in their Italian territorialization - and of the peculiar national case of the Public Service streaming portal RaiPlay; for each portal is then underlined the peculiar spectatorial figure, to highlight significant paths in the ongoing transformations in the streaming market. The objective of the essay is twofold: on the one hand, to return a model of operational description of the functioning of market players that is effective and manageable for Media Studies as well as for professionals; on the other hand, to highlight how the field of streaming portal fruition can be used as an excellent field of investigation to study the problem of subjectivity in phenomenological terms.