‘I keep getting TT duds’: Examining sponsorship using algorithmically driven reading recommendations on #BookTok and Webtoons

Abstract This study explores how literary content is sponsored, shaped and evaluated within two popular literary and reader‐centric digital platforms: #BookTok and Webtoon. Grounded in a literacy sponsorship framework, we trace how material and immaterial sponsors, including platform algorithms, user commentary and engagement metrics, mediate access to literary content and shape perceptions of its value. Using digital autoethnography and walkthrough methods, the authors analysed how platform sponsors influence access to romance literary content. Findings reveal that while sponsorship includes direct promotion of content by users, influencers and platform features, it also includes less visible structures such as algorithmic sorting and normative assumptions, which privilege certain voices and narratives. These dynamics skew perceptions of literary quality, often amplifying dominant ideologies and narrowing the range of texts and viewpoints that circulate. Visibility, shaped by engagement and algorithmic design, does not necessarily equate to diversity or quality of content. Instead, dominant narratives often obscure marginalised perspectives, raising concerns about access, gatekeeping and authority in digitally mediated reading spaces. In an era where platforms shape both what is read and how it is interpreted, this study calls for further research on how youth engage with literary digital content and how sponsorship influences their meaning‐making practices.