Unpopularity and cultural power in the age of Netflix: New questions for cultural studies' approaches to television texts

Although Internet-distributed television bears much in common with the television long studied and theorized using cultural studies-based approaches to analysis, several of its features profoundly deviate from earlier television norms and require reassessment and adaptation of theoretical frames. This article focuses on the issue of textual popularity in relation to these services and identifies key challenges to using the same frames of cultural power that have been used for studying television in the past. The underlying problem of audience fragmentation does not originate with streaming services, but this profound contextual change, in concert with industrial aspects that further distinguish internet-distributed television from television's past norms, must be addressed. The article concludes by identifying several ways the cultural power of streaming services can be investigated despite the challenges that emerging norms of Internet-distributed video provide.

Automated summary

This article examines the differences between Internet-distributed television and traditional television cultural norms, highlighting the importance of audience fragmentation and the need to reassess existing theoretical frameworks. It concludes by suggesting several ways to investigate the cultural power of streaming services despite the challenges posed by emerging norms of Internet-distributed video.