Anushka Kartha Core Post 5

 Control, Illusions, And Also Interactive Programming: 

Lisa Parks speaks of the post broadcasting era as one of “personal television”, with the stratification and identification of the audience members in order to deliver them tailor-made for advertisers - or, “individuation geared toward profit making” (Parks, 2). This increasing datafication of the audience (and indeed, the mediatization of society) as mentioned by Sonia Livingstone, has led to a sort of look into the audience and their relation with media in a data-first and ever so dehumanized manner. Livingstone concludes, 

“…the critical analysis of audiences cannot be satisfied with sporadic inclusion of disembodied, decontextualized observations of behavior or cherry-picked survey percentages but must engage with audiences meaningfully in and across the contexts of their lives” (Livingstone, 180)

which playfully toys with Parks’ discussion on flexible microcasting via manipulation of temporality, control of schedule and flow, and television’s convergence with the internet. The very structure of flexible microcasting hinges on the binary of individuation within public systems. Tara McPherson notes that “choice, personalization and transformation are heightened as experiential lures” (McPherson, 206) as material forms of the digital, with the reference Benjamin reminding me of his own writings on the flâneur. He deems the figure as transformative with the modern condition, existing in whatever form he must take on. The average internet user & television enjoyer today can perhaps exist in this form, but seems increasingly challenging. As McPherson states, “we are increasingly aware of ourselves as databases, as part and parcel of the flow of information” (McPherson, 203). 

On streaming, we are fed a hyper-personalized, well curated experience. Here the user gets to play God (or at the very least, curator) in tailoring not only their home pages but also in some special cases, the content (Bandersnatch, Impossible Kimmy Schmidt special, etc). These wholly immersive and interactive pieces of content function not dissimilarly to event films, often plastered not only on Netflix and its likes’ homepages, but also across OOH touchpoints across cities. With scaffolding levels of individuation allowing for communal experiences (often due to novelty of concept), there is a delicate, if vacuous interplay between the two which is pleasant for about a minute.