ERMeCC Lunch Seminar

Netflix Original Series, Constructing Global Audiences, and Discourses of Streaming Success
Michael Wayne and Ana Uribe Sandoval  

This research examines industry discourse related to two of Netflix’s most successful global originals: the Israeli action thriller Fauda (2015-) and the Spanish heist series La Casa de Papel (2017-). Using trade press discourse analysis, this study finds that discourses of streaming success vary with the construction of the audience. In reference to an undifferentiated global audience, the success of Fauda and La Casa is consistently explained in terms of cultural relevance, characters’ moral complexity, and “authentic” storytelling. Yet, when addressing specific segments of Netflix’s audience, the discourse of streaming success becomes much less coherent and sometimes problematic. Ultimately, the relationship between differing discourses of streaming success and various conceptualizations of Netflix’s viewership highlights the continuing significance of Ang’s (1991) observation that the audience is always constructed. As such, these industry discourses and conceptualizations reflect significant continuities between the medium’s past and present.

Cultural value orientations in Europe: How media usage, trust, and media systems shape cultural valorization
Marc Verboord and Nete Nørgaard Kristensen

Given the current European political climate, we argue that it is an important question how Europeans view their cultural heritage and, more broadly, cultural value. This paper maps these patterns, and examines how perceptions are related to their media usage. Drawing on data from the Eurobarometer in October 2017, we examine which cultural value orientations are most prevalent at the moment in European Union countries, and how these are related to using traditional and online media, trust in journalists and other institutional actors, and the media system in which users find their news. The data contain information on 28 EU countries and are analyzed using multilevel analysis.

From the empirical results we can distinguish three distinct types of cultural value orientation among Europeans: valuing cultural heritage, valuing cultural exchange, and skepticism towards European culture. At the individual level, all types of media usage positively influence the first two orientations. Trust in journalists and other experts also leads to more attributed value, and it negatively influences skepticism. At the country level, results are somewhat counter-intuitive: larger shares of public broadcasters and print media does not foster valuing heritage or exchange. Larger social inequalities in a country (Gini index) are associated with more value and less skepticism.