Evidence in Series? Time and Reality References of Serial Television Formats on Digital Platforms Using the Example of Germany’s Next Topmodel and Neo Magazin (Royale)

Despite all the prophecies of doom, this article is based on the thesis that television is not losing out in the digital age, but can become the new paradigm of the knowledge order in the digital world precisely through its linkage with social media. When the supposed ‘digital citizen’ is regularly presented in Neo Magazin Royale, but also when Germanys Next Topmodel provides its viewers with status updates every 60 min—then different facets of the digital transformation become visible and normatively framed here. This article is dedicated to such visualizations of the digital transformation. The focus is on how the references of the televisual to non-filmic reality change through the “digital expansion of the serial principle” and what position television still has today with regard to its reality-forming character.