Film interpretation in 21st century digital culture: A Ricœuryan method

Contemporary digital culture rises on phenomena such as fluidity, uncertainty, uncanny, speed, connectivity, interaction and network structure. From the first mechanical calculating machines, the speed of computers getting smaller and smaller, becoming invisible by being embedded in everyday life culture as mobile and wearable technologies, and artificial intelligence applications such as machine learning-deep learning radically transform many activities, including basic human communication. In this sense, cinema is understood in a new digital context at the stages of technical infrastructure, narration possibilities, production and distribution. Along with this, the course of movies, like all other works of art, is also transforming in its final and endless stage, that is, in the cycle of perception, interpretation and understanding. In this study, in the light of a version of Paul Ricœur's hermeneutic method adapted to contemporary digital culture, the nature of film interpretations in the age of interaction and participation culture, internet and social media, where taste becomes digitized data within the score logic and becomes a sign under the influence of algorithms, is investigated. At the end of the research process carried out in a wide range from academic studies, philosophical thought, internet magazines, forums, illegal websites to movie databases such as IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, it has been revealed that film interpretations increasingly present a dualist and schematic structure in terms of their relations with digital culture phenomena.