From Spectatorship to “Survivorship” in Five Critical Propositions (original) (raw)
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RAE-IC, Revista de la Asociación Española deInvestigación de la Comunicación, 2022
The new modes of television consumption point to the interest of binge-watching as the object of study. This paper builds an intensity index that classifies users into “irregular”, “regular” or “dedicated”. Methodologically, an inter-method sequence is applied, combining descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses, as well as discussion groups from which cleavages or discursive positions derive. The results of the research indicate that most of the University population are binge-watchers so the terms have changed and a new scale is necessary for identifying the level of engagement with binge-watching behaviour in the current. Almost 30% of the university population under study corresponds to the typical-ideal category of “dedicated” and 33% with the “regular”. The growth rate of the phenomenon is exponential between 2016-2019. The triggering motivations for binge-watching are primarily hedonic; its effects affect our moods especially in “dedicated” users. Two different types of viewing are clearly identified. The first is committed or prioritized viewing (with a high attention level, high dependence and sympathy with regards to the story and characters), and secondary or complimentary viewing. The study concludes that, in a pre-pandemic context of over-audiovisual fiction content (fictoxication), the ability to select and self-assess the media diet acquires the fundamental skill status in the socio-educational framework of the younger ones.
Defusing moral panic: Legitimizing binge-watching as manageable, high-quality, middle-class hedonism
2020
The rise of video-on-demand streaming services has facilitated more intensive television watching. When novel consumption behaviors emerge, cultural intermediaries may be mobilized to make sense of it and potentially legitimize it. This often takes place by raising moral panic, as it draws attention to new cultural practices and asks tastemakers to take a stance. The current study takes “binge-watching” as a discursive anchor point to investigate this process. We argue that moral panic is not only a strategy that can be employed to condemn cultural practices, but by deflecting moral concerns through mechanisms of social distinction, it can also allow intermediaries to normalize new cultural phenomena. Through inductive and deductive coding of U.S. news articles on binge-watching (n: 681), we discern three pathways through which intensive video-on-demand watching is reframed: first, the shows that are binge-watched are high quality; second, binge-watching can be controlled, at least ...
Unpacking Binging: New Ways of Production & Consumption
International Journal of Media Studies, 2019
The last five years have been increasingly transformative in the realms of broadcast and electronic media; following an inevitable convergence with internet-centric technologies. The emergence of new platforms has enabled the untethering of audiovisual content from specific temporal and spatial bounds as consumption of AV programming has embraced the facets of mobility. This paper critically examines content streaming applications like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar and Voot in conjunction with similar platforms of streaming content for media forms like podcasts. By analyzing the content on offer, the various modus-operandi for content creation and dissemination and the way consumers engage/consume content on these platforms; this paper hopes to arrive at a nuanced understanding of binging both as an activity and as a new way of engaging with broadcast content. In terms of market value, the Indian online streaming market is estimated to be over 100 million regular subscribers and is valued at USD 280 Million. By using specific cases and situating the analysis in the context of an increasingly connected world; this paper will extend the academic understanding of binging by building on the foundations of a remediated understanding (McLuhan) and giving it a social dimension.
Chapter 8 Binge-Watching and the Organisation of Everyday Life
Binge-Watching and Contemporary Television Research
W atching television is a cultural activity that is an integral part of the practices and routines of everyday life (see also Bury 2017). In this context, the binge-watching phenomenon illustrates a trend from mass communication to massive personalisation (Bolin 2014). The algorithms of video-on-demand (VoD) services confront users with a personalised offer that is not only about personalised content and recommendation systems, but also about, for example, the design of the start screen when users access Netflix. Despite the growing numbers of academic publications on binge-watching, the concept lacks a standardised definition (see Introduction to this volume). Moreover, the term co-exists with more 'comprehensive' concepts like 'media marathoning', which refers to a type of media engagement that 'captures viewers' and reader's engrossment, effort, and sense of accomplishment surrounding their media interaction' (Perks 2015, ix). By means of a literature review, Merikivi et al. concluded that binge-watching could be defined as the 'consumption of more than one episode of the same serialized video content in a single sitting at one's own time and pace' (2019, 6). This definition not only links a pretty low (and therefore controversial) number of episodes in its definition, but it also misses the reference to a key aspect on the studied phenomenon: the technological development. A definition suggested by Mikos in 2016 emphasises it, when he says that binge-watching could be defined 'as a form of television consumption which only became possible with certain technological and commercial developments in the media market, and at the same time was promoted by certain aesthetic and narrative developments in the television series market' (Mikos 2016, 157). Taking into account that people may have differing personal
A binge-consuming culture: The effect of consumerism on social interactions in western societies
We live in a ‘‘binge-consuming’’ culture. Indeed, a certain compulsion to consume seems to characterize not only the way in which people relate to the object world of luxury goods, but also the way we relate to other people, institutions and society in general. In this sense, the term ‘‘binge’’—usually associated with addictions—may be also useful in identifying our consuming culture. The aim of this article is to discuss how the same psychological processes that are taken into account to explain binge compulsions may be applied to binge as a consumerist and utilitarian way of relating to others. In particular, four aspects characterizing binge addictions—present-time orientation, impulsiveness, the crisis of the relationship with authority and narcissism—may also be recognized in the ‘‘normal’’ way of approaching life and society.
Consumption, identity, and surveillance during COVID-19 as a crisis of pleasure
Consumption Markets & Culture, 2022
The global COVID-19 pandemic was the latest instance of a crisis of pleasure. Crises of pleasure are periodic eruptions of discontent when consumption is disrupted by external forces. In this case, the pandemic also disrupted expressions of identity on social media, where identity is made legible through conspicuous consumption on social media in the early 2020s. Drawing from six qualitative focus group interviews conducted in the summer of 2020, we analyze how social media users interpret the accounts they follow posting content that seemingly violates social distancing guidelines during COVID-19. We find that consumption during the pandemic was highly contested and surveilled, with participants describing the disciplining power of social media and their use of news and public health guidelines to inform their identities. Both trends illustrate how surveilled modes of consumption characterize the post-lockdown consumption reality, which is polarized and partisan leading towards hedonist and puritanical models.
Binge-Watching and Contemporary Television Research
W ho are binge-viewers? Research on contemporary television audiences has revealed complex, nuanced and at times contradictory depictions of these elusive yet ubiquitous consumers of contemporary media (Castro et al. 2021; Flayelle et al. 2019; Merikivi et al. 2019). At times gluttons at times epicures, binge-viewers consume more voraciously and specifically than any audience in television history. To understand their delicate degustation of control, researchers have examined binge-viewer uses and gratifications (Merrill and Rubenking 2019; Steiner and Xu, 2020), the potential health impacts (Perks 2019; Tefertiller and Maxwell 2018), the role of viewer attentiveness on mood and content selection (Pittman and Steiner 2019; Walton-Pattison, Dombrowski and Presseau 2018), as well as antecedents and outcomes of their binges (Gangadharbatla, Ackerman and Bamford 2019; Pittman and Steiner 2021). The variety and scope of audience studies seeking to identify binge-viewers and their traits and types continues to grow (see Chapter 9 on Typology, which concludes this part). However, with so many willing human subjects (see Chapter 8 by Lothar Mikos and Deborah Castro and Chapter 6 by Lisa Perks in this part) creating windfalls of user data (as discussed by Ri Pierce Grove in Chapter 7), mediated depictions of binge-viewers have received scant academic attention. Pierce-Grove (2017) and Steiner (2018) chronicled journalistic articulations of binge-watching, but the fictional representations of binge-viewers remain largely unexplored. In part, this may be because there are so few. Couch potatoes were a common trope of twentieth-century TV, but binge-viewers seldom appear in shows being binge-watched. When the term began to catch cultural traction around 2012-14, there were a number of comedic depictions, the most famous of which was Portlandia's (IFC 2011-18) Claire (Carrie Brownstein)
It’s the End of the World and You Watch It: Media Consumption in the Time of COVID-19
International Journal of Contemporary Humanities,, 2020
This paper presents the results of an experiment undertaken by the authors to capture media consumption trends during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak. These results are correlated with the demographics, and individual situations of the experimental participants. The overall aim is to correlate the media consumption reported by the experimental participants with national viewing trends and historical data to show that there is an increased consumption of disaster themed media during times of crisis. The research intends to differentiate this increase in disaster themed media consumption by correlating it with the differing circumstances of the viewers. Specifically, whether they watch movies and/or play video games on their own and whether they currently have more free time to consume media. This paper provides evidence to support three hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: People will consume more disaster/ pandemic themed media during pandemic induced quarantine, Hypothesis 2: Individuals with more control over their media choices are more likely to choose disaster/pandemic themed media. Hypothesis 3: Individuals with more free time to consume media are more likely to choose disaster/pandemic themed media. This paper is the second in a set of two publications, a history of disaster themed media consumption can be found in the companion paper, "It's the End of the World and You Watch It: A Brief History of Disaster Themed Media."
Chapter 9 Binge-Watching Audience Typologies: Conclusion
Binge-Watching and Contemporary Television Research
B inge-watching was a relatively obscure phenomenon before 2012. Although practised and discussed in niche circles since before the advent of DVDs, it was not until streaming services and broadband internet became more and more ubiquitous that binge-watching received increased media and academic attention. Between 2015 and 2020, researchers have asked many questions about binge-watchers, including why they watch, what motivates them, how engaged they are (or not), and what outcomes they report after the bingewatching experience. Scholars exploring these questions have found a range of motives, a variety of experiences, a spectrum of engagement, and positively and negatively valenced binge-watching outcomes-some of which are dependent on one another. Why a person binge-watches is strongly tied to what they hope to get out of the experience. What they actually get out of it is tied to what they watch and how they watch it (Castro et al. 2021; Steiner 2017). Our audience part of this book has uncovered additional patterns and structures of binge-watching. To round off the part, we use this chapter to describe audience typologies that shed some light on the why, where, when, with whom, how, and to what end of binge-watching. m o t i v e s Steiner and Xu (2020) found the following binge-watching motives: 'catching up, relaxation, sense of completion, cultural inclusion, and improved viewing experience' (90). These aligned with finding by Perks (2015), Pittman and Sheehan (2015), and later Panda and Pandey (2017). While some motives, such