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Binge Watching-Summary TEXT
Binge Watching-Summary TEXT
Binge Watching-Summary TEXT
dangers of binge-watching were replaced by news of its restorative powers. USA Today, for instance,
reassured viewers that “binge-watching can soothe the coronavirus quarantine blues, and no need for
guilt.” Similarly, the website The Conversation announced that “watching TV in lockdown can be
good for you” and recommended TV shows “particularly suited to boosting positive emotions.”
Lockdown conditions and the synchronicity of collective viewing also appeared to create the space for
a reframing of binge-watching as a politically productive activity, one tied to social-justice projects.
Following the worldwide outrage over the murder of Floyd and continuing racist violence against
Black subjects, listicles emerged of antiracist films and TV shows for viewers to watch as a means of
converting them from unreflective couch potatoes into socially enlightened citizens. Netflix, never one
to miss a marketing opportunity (particularly one that can be woven into its brand identity as a “woke”
platform) also launched its own “Black Lives Matter” collection of fiction films, TV shows, and
documentaries.
However well-intentioned, such antiracist lists have been rightfully criticized by scholars such as
Malini Guha and Racquel Gates on the grounds that they are simplistic and, in the words of Gates,
“reduce Black art to a hastily constructed manual to understanding oppression, always with white
people as the implied audience.” While these critiques are important and serve as reminders of the
inherent limitations of list making, COVID culture’s recasting of Cruel TV and Tiger King.
Yet, the experience of lockdown during COVID-19 problematized oppositions between the individual
and the communal, revealing the ways in which compressed viewing can be both social and grounded
in a historical moment. Against an image of the binge watcher as a solitary figure huddled over a smart
device, COVID-19 illuminated the profoundly social properties of binge-watching in the streaming era
through the inventive ways in which people used technologies and platforms to negotiate new forms of
digital intimacy and to find ways to watch together while physically apart.
At this writing, reports have emerged that Netflix is starting to experience a downturn in subscribers as
the “pandemic boom wears off.” Yet it seems unlikely that the concept of binge-watching has run its
course. I maintain that binge-watching is a remarkably versatile and persistent notion—in both
academic scholarship and general cultural usage. Its continued relevance stems from how it captures
something about the affective intensities of internet TV and user-directed viewing, which can be
capitalized on by social-media corporations such as TikTok.
Hrv
Tijekom svjetskih karantena zbog COVID-19 2020. – 2021., medijske priče o potencijalno
smrtonosnim opasnostima prekomjernog gledanja zamijenjene su vijestima o njegovim obnavljajućim
moćima. USA Today je, na primjer, uvjeravao gledatelje da "pretjerano gledanje može umiriti
karantensku atmosferu zbog Korona virusa i nema potrebe za osjećajem krivnje". Slično, web stranica
The Conversation objavila je da "gledanje TV-a u zatvorenom stanju može biti dobro za vas" i
preporučila TV emisije "osobito prikladne za poticanje pozitivnih emocija".
Koliko god bili dobronamjerni, takve antirasističke popise s pravom su kritizirali znanstvenici kao što
su Malini Guha i Racquel Gates na temelju toga što su pojednostavljeni i, prema Gatesovim riječima,
“svode crnačku umjetnost na brzo konstruiran priručnik za razumijevanje ugnjetavanja, uvijek s
bijelcima kao impliciranom publikom.” Iako su ove kritike važne i služe kao podsjetnici na inherentna
ograničenja sastavljanja popisa, preinaka Cruel TV-a i Kralja tigra u kulturi COVID-a.
U trenutku pisanja ovog teksta, pojavila su se izvješća da Netflix počinje doživljavati pad broja
pretplatnika kako "procvat pandemije jenjava". Ipak, ne čini se da je koncept binge-watchinga u
potpunosti nestao. Tvrdim da je binge-watching izuzetno svestran i uporan pojam - kako u akademskoj
znanosti tako i u općoj kulturnoj upotrebi. Njegova kontinuirana relevantnost proizlazi iz toga kako
bilježi nešto o afektivnim intenzitetima internetske televizije i gledanja usmjerenog prema korisniku,
što mogu iskoristiti korporacije društvenih medija kao što je TikTok.