Friction in the Netflix machine: how screen workers interact with streaming data

Nina Rasmussen

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Data-driven streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have expanded into the European screen landscape with a significant appetite for locally produced content. These players leverage advanced data analytics to gain deep customer insights, but they prefer to keep a lid on their algorithmic operations. This article examines how screen workers interact with streaming data despite widespread secrecy. Drawing on interviews and an interface ethnography, I explore the ways these workers access, sense, generate and resist streaming data throughout their creative process. As such, the article provides a framework for understanding the subtle and sometimes contradictory ways that screen workers engage with such data practices. I also demonstrate how researchers can circumvent and lower barriers to access in an industry marked by data secrecy. As a result, this article contributes to discussions about the datafication of cultural production, and it does so with novel insights from the European screen context.

Keywords: algorithms; Amazon; big data; creative labour; creative methods; datafication; Netflix; production cultures; streaming; AH/L503873/1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2024-05-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul and nep-pay
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in New Media & Society, 10, May, 2024. ISSN: 1461-4448

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/122660/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:122660

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().