Description
Generally limited to short formats and meagre budgets, the teen genre has been enlivened in the recent years. In 2022 HBO’s Euphoria (2019-present) became the most tweeted show of the decade, spurring an entire meme culture around its central characters (Spangler, 2022). The success of Euphoria, but also series such as Skam (2015-2017) and its multiple iterations, or Sex Education (2019-present), makes teen television an increasingly popular genre (again). Surfing on the renewed popularity of the genre, and, to some extent, also contributing to their boost in production, subscription Video-On-Demand (hereafter SVOD) platforms are increasingly investing in the production of teen series. Spearheading this revival, Netflix quickly established itself as the leading platform for the genre. Although the streamer built its dominance by boosting prestige dramas such as House of Cards (2013-2018), it gradually expanded its catalogue towards the teen genre in a bid to attract young audiences. Interestingly, whereas most SVOD platforms have produced their teen originals series within the purview and conventions of American television, Netflix is the only platform (so far) to have exported the genre outside the western world. With shows such as Blood and Water (2020-present) in South Africa, or Jinn (2019-present) in Jordan, the teen genre is increasingly becoming transnational (Jenner 2021). This transnationalisation of the teen genre, we surmise, is infused with and part of Netflix growing emphasis on diversity (i.e. sexual, gender, linguistic and ethnic diversity). Indeed, following the publication of its first diversity report, the streamer has committed itself to be a driver of inclusion for underrepresented communities in the film and television industries. To this end, Netflix is putting a strong emphasis on inclusive storytelling and content that reflect audiences, especially young audiences (Sarandos, 2021). Expanding the scope of previous research on the cultural power of streaming platforms (Lotz, 2021), this contribution considers Netflix teen original series at the interface between national television, international expansion, and global cultural politics. The research question guiding this contribution, namely ‘(how) Is Netflix diversifying teen series?’, allows us to examine how the streamer fuse its diversity strategy with its teen programming to attract young viewers. This contribution takes on a qualitative approach, framed, at the conceptual level, by theories of media industries (Havens & Lotz, 2017) and cultural studies (Hall, 1997); at the methodological level, inspired by film studies (Benshoff, 2015) and visual ethnography (Pink, 2013; Rose, 2016), this contribution is based on a trailer analysis of Netflix teen full original series—that is series fully commissioned by the streamer (Afilipoaie et al., 2021)—released between 2015-2022 (N=80). Trailers are part of what Gray (2010) terms paratexts: they introduce audiences to texts and thus frame the interactions we have with, and the meanings we construct around television texts. Precisely because they act as paratexts, trailers offer a narrative image of what is to be expected in a certain television text. Unfortunately, trailers have not gained much attention from media and television studies, except from being studied as mere advertising. As such, the trailer analysis stresses the following aspects: - Narratives: How is the story told? How are aspects of sexual, gender, ethnic, linguistic diversity represented? - Characters: What characters are represented? How are aspects of sexual, gender, ethnic, linguistic diversity, related to the characters, represented? - Theme: What is the theme of the story? What contemporary issues come to the fore? - Subgenre: is the series animated? Drama? Etc. We conclude that Netflix teen originals series simultaneously reiterate and expand the generic conventions of teen television, particularly at the level of genre with the addition of anime to the teen genre corpus. Moreover, Netflix seems to be pushing the boundaries of teen television by capitalizing on content that resonate with the diversity of its audiences, putting to the fore contemporary issues such as sexual assault, sexual pleasure, bullying and suicide. Relying on universal narratives, the streamer, through an emphasis on diversity in its programming, consolidate its engagement with young audiences. Moreover, this contribution provides a methodological contribution to the study of SVOD platforms such as Netflix. Indeed, we critically reflect on the usefulness of trailer analysis to explore a service such as Netflix, especially given the streamer’s reliance on personalised recommendations, which increasingly include a diversification of trailers for different audience segments.| Periode | 19 okt 2022 |
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| Evenementstitel | ECREA 2022: 9th European Communication Conference : Rethinking Impact |
| Evenementstype | Conference |
| Locatie | Aarhus, Denmark |
| Mate van erkenning | International |