Felkapcsoltade

Felkapcsoltade is a term used in media studies to describe a mode of audience engagement in which viewers actively participate in shaping media narratives by turning on inputs, creating and sharing content, and influencing production decisions in near real time. The term is commonly used to analyze participatory practices that emerge with digital platforms in Hungarian-speaking media landscapes.

Origin and etymology: The word combines felkapcsol, meaning "to switch on" in Hungarian, with a suffix that forms a concept name. It first appears in academic and journalistic discourse in the late 2010s, where scholars argued that it captures a shift from passive reception to active co-creation within online ecosystems.

Characteristics: Key features include immediacy, user-generated content, platform mediation, and collaborative storytelling. Practices associated with Felkapcsoltade include live streaming, crowd-sourced plot twists, remix culture, and audience voting or steering of outcomes. The concept emphasizes audience agency and the blurring of boundaries between producers and consumers.

Reception and critique: Some scholars view Felkapcsoltade as a productive framework for understanding participatory potential and democratized media creation. Others criticize the term for vagueness, commercial influences, and the risk that algorithmic incentives or platform designs steer participation in particular directions rather than genuine collaboration.

Impact and examples: The term is used in analyses of contemporary Hungarian film and television campaigns, festival performances, and online activism where audiences help shape meanings, selections, or outcomes. It functions as a lens for examining how digital culture redefines authorship and audience involvement in media production.