Cultural skimming, authenticity, and streaming preferences: Turkish serials ( <i>dizi</i> ) among young audiences in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE

This article explores how young audiences in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates engage with Turkish television serials ( dizi ) within a fragmented digital media environment shaped by international streaming platforms and algorithmically curated social media. Drawing on exploratory, participant-led focus groups, the study examines how participants interact with Turkish serials produced as international streaming originals in comparison to traditional Turkish broadcast serials. Participants expressed a clear preference for broadcast dizi , which they described as emotionally compelling, culturally proximate, and reflective of what this study terms culturally sanctioned fantasy. These are narrative spaces that enable emotionally engaging yet culturally appropriate storytelling. In contrast, Turkish streaming originals were often viewed as emotionally detached and culturally distant. This response reflects an inverse cultural discount effect, in which narratives lose their appeal when reformatted for global audiences. Social media platforms, particularly TikTok and Instagram, played a central role in content discovery, often promoting episodic, short-form engagement. To describe this mode of viewing, the article introduces the analytical term cultural skimming, which captures the fragmented and algorithmically driven nature of serial engagement. These findings contribute to ongoing debates on cultural proximity, mediated authenticity, and transnational media reception within contemporary digital viewing practices.