Section B – Global Media and Media in the Online

 What Key terms/theory apply to this media product

using netflix as the example

Convergence in that Netflix runs on Apple TV, the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, Android phones and tablets, Windows Phones, iOS devices, internet-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players, and streaming players from Philips, Roku and Western Digital. The most recent addition to the list is the Kindle Fire HD.
MGM, Paramount and Lionsgate Miramax, Momentum Pictures, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount are amongst the studios on the Netflix books, with content from the likes of the BBC, 4oD and Disney UK & Ireland added for UK audiences. This should mean a broader more mainstream variety of content available on similar services already in the UK. Netflix may also look to continue producing original content as it has begun doing in the US.
Anthropomorphising in that it contains “human like qualities”. If you’ve got a Facebook account, you can connect it up with Netflix account so you’ll be able to share what you are watching and help discover the films and shows you really should not be missing out on. The technological convergence with the technology eco-system of Facebook, increases the popularity of Netflix as your Facebook friends can “like” what you are watching and similarly, use the service themselves. This is also known as the two-step flow theory as the word of the mouth spreads about the benefits of Netflix. In this way, Netflix have the power to mediate and control the way in which we access moving image.
Noah Chomsky – Netflix “erodes normal human relations”. Due to the easy accessibility of Netflix, the film and cinema industry is suffering, The traditional outing of watching a movie at the cinema with friends and family was considered to act as quality time socializing and interacting before and after the movie, however, now, Netflix can be viewed by anyone, anywhere, without the presence of another for that matter.

Crowdsourcing – process by which a company sources a task or project to a wide set of participants via the Web and social collaboration sites. Netflix developed a world-class movie recommendation system: Cinematch. Its job being to predict whether someone will enjoy a movie based on how much they liked or disliked other movies using those predictions to make personal movie recommendations based on each customer’s unique tastes.

Targeted Marketing – On Netflix, the movies you watch such as the particular genre and rating of the movie is used in order to filter and suggest similar movies that may interest you. Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos has said that all that data means that Netflix has a very “addressable audience.”