The Interpretive Agency of Global Audiences: Processes of Cultural Resignification in the Consumption of Hegemonic Media Products

The growth of transnational circulation of media content has intensified the academic debate on the influence of hegemonic cultural products on global audiences. This article analyzes how audiences reinterpret and resignify these media products based on their sociocultural contexts. From a cultural studies and international communication perspective, it examines the relationship between media hegemony, reception, and the production of meanings by audiences. Methodologically, the study adopts a mixed approach combining content analysis and surveys applied to a sample of 320 users of digital platforms from different geographical regions. The results show that audiences do not passively consume dominant media products, but rather negotiate and even oppose the meanings proposed by cultural industries. Likewise, differentiated patterns of resignification associated with factors such as cultural identity, educational capital, and geopolitical context are identified. The findings reveal that 62% of participants reinterpreted content from local cultural frameworks, while 24% adopted a negotiated reading, and 14% reproduced the dominant meaning. These results reinforce theoretical perspectives that uphold the centrality of audience agency in the construction of media meanings. In theoretical terms, the study contributes to the discussion on the validity of the concept of cultural hegemony in the context of digital globalization. It concludes that the global circulation of content does not imply cultural homogenization, but rather generates complex processes of appropriation, reinterpretation, and symbolic resistance by audiences.