Friction in the Netflix machine

How screen workers interact with streaming data

Bibliographic Data

ID6443669
AuthorsNina Vindum Rasmussen (0009-0004-1107-167X, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume27
Issue9
Pages5239-5256
Publication date2024-05-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14614448241250029
OpenAlexW4396812883
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited32

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

Computer security · Context (archaeology · Data science · Ethnography · Internet privacy · Leverage (statistics · Secrecy · Sociology · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Artificial Intelligence

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Open DOIOpen Access