Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Since 2020, Netflix has emphasised the diversity of representation the platform provides through its content. Following the publication of its diversity report, the streamer positions itself as a driver of inclusion for underrepresented communities in film and television industries. This article examines how Netflix rhetorically frames the emphasis on diversity in its corporate communication. Based on a thematic analysis of Netflix’s press releases, it explores how Netflix uses its branding of diversity to generate a transnational appeal. The article outlines four strategies which highlight the cultural and industrial practices deployed by the streamer to gain competitive advantages.

Keywords

Netflix diversity television branding transnational television television studies subscription-video-on-demand

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abebreseh

(2020) About Netflix - “Sex Education” creates a safe space to tackle tough topics. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/sex-education-creates-a-safe-space-to-tackle-tough-topics (accessed 18 February 2020).

Afilipoaie

Iordache

Raats

(2021) The ‘Netflix Original’and what it means for the production of European TV content. Critical Studies in Television 16(3): 304-325.

Alatas

(2004) Indigenization: features and problems. In: Van Bremen

Ben-Ari

Alatas

(eds.) Asian Anthropology. Routledge, 239-256.

Amazon Studios (2021) Amazon Studios releases inclusion policy and playbook to strengthen ongoing commitment to diverse and equitable representation. In: Amazon.com, Press Room. Available at: https://press.aboutamazon.com/news-releases/news-release-details/amazon-studios-releases-inclusion-policy-and-playbook-strengthen (accessed 17 June 2021).

Appiah

(2007) Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. W. W. Norton & Company.

Bajaria

(2021) Investing in the next generation of women storytellers. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-female-storytellers (accessed 3 April 2021).

Banet-Weiser

(2012) Authentic TM: Politics and Ambivalence in a Brand Culture. Critical Cultural Communication. New York: New York University Press.

Beck

(2000) The cosmopolitan perspective: sociology of the second age of modernity. The British Journal of Sociology 51(1): 79-105.

Bing

(2021) Expanding our presence in Korea: Netflix welcomes the New Year with two new production facilities. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/expanding-our-presence-in-korea-netflix-production-facilities (accessed 1 June 2021).

10.

Caldwell

(2006) Critical industrial practice: branding, repurposing, and the migratory patterns of industrial texts. Television & New Media 7(2): 99-134.

11.

Castro

Cascajosa

(2020) From Netflix to Movistar+: how subscription video-on-demand services have transformed Spanish TV production. JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 59(3): 154-160.

12.

Chalaby

(2005a) Deconstructing the transnational: a typology of cross-border television channels in Europe. New Media & Society 7(2): 155-175.

13.

Chalaby

(2005b) From internationalization to transnationalization. Global Media and Communication 1(1): 28-33.

14.

Christian

(2020) Beyond branding: the value of intersectionality on streaming TV channels. Television & New Media 21(5): 457-474.

15.

Crawford

CJM

(2019) Fictitious capital: Netflix and the new narratives of media value in platform capitalism. In: Intersection Cross Sections, Ryerson University, 15–24.

16.

D’Arma

Raats

Steemers

(2021) Public service media in the Age of SVoDs: a comparative study of PSM strategic responses in Flanders, Italy and the UK. Media, Culture & Society 43(4): 682-700.

17.

Davila

(2001) Latinos, Inc: The Marketing and Making of a People. University of California Press.

18.

Don’t Look up (2021) Comedy. Netflix.

19.

Elkins

(2019) Algorithmic cosmopolitanism: on the global claims of digital entertainment platforms. Critical Studies in Media Communication 36(4): 376-389.

20.

Elkins

(2021) Streaming diplomacy: Netflix’s domestic politics and foreign policy. In: Dal Yon

(ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Digital Media and Globalization. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 150–157.

21.

Fuller

(2010) Branding blackness on US cable television. Media, Culture & Society 32(2): 285–305.

22.

Gray

(2021) Precarious Diversity. In: Curtin

Sanson

(eds.) Precarious Creativity: Global Media, Local Labor. 1st ed., 241–253.

23.

Hall

(ed.) (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Culture, Media, and Identities. London, Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications.

24.

Havens

(2018) Netflix: streaming channel brands as global meaning systems. In: Johnson

(ed.) From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels. Routledge, 321–331.

25.

Havens

Lotz

(2017) Understanding Media Industries. 2nd ed. New York ; Oxford: Oxford University Press.

26.

Havens

Lotz

Tinic

(2009) Critical media industry studies: a research approach. Communication, Culture & Critique 2(2): 234-253.

27.

Himberg

(2014) Multicasting: Lesbian programming and the changing landscape of cable TV. Television & New Media 15(4): 289-304.

28.

Iordache

(2021) Netflix in Europe: four markets, four platforms? A comparative analysis of audio-visual offerings and investment strategies in four EU states. Television & New Media: 1–22.

29.

Jenner

(2016) Is this TVIV? On Netflix, TVIII and binge-watching. New Media & Society 18(2): 257-273.

30.

Jenner

(2018) Netflix and the Re-Invention of Television. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

31.

Jin

(ed.) (2021) The Routledge Handbook of Digital Media and Globalization. New York, NY: Routledge.

32.

Khalil

Zayani

(2021) De-territorialized digital capitalism and the predicament of the nation-state: Netflix in Arabia. Media, Culture & Society 43(2): 201-218.

33.

Cho

(2020) Netflix building a home for best-in-class stories from Korea. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-building-home-of-best-in-class-stories-from-korea (accessed 22 March 2020).

34.

Kohnen

MES

(2015) Cultural diversity as brand management in cable television. Media Industries Journal 2(2): 88-103.

35.

Kotler

Keller

(2011) Marketing Management. 14th ed. Pearson.

36.

Lobato

(2018) Rethinking international TV flows research in the age of Netflix. Television & New Media 19(3): 241-256.

37.

Lobato

(2019) Netflix Nations. New York University Press.

38.

Lobato

Lotz

(2020) Imagining global video: the challenge of Netflix. Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 59(3): 132-136.

39.

Lotz

Amanda

(2021a) In between the global and the local: mapping the geographies of Netflix as a multinational service. International Journal of Cultural Studies 24(2): 195-215.

40.

Lotz

Amanda

(2021b) Unpopularity and cultural power in the age of Netflix: new questions for cultural studies’ approaches to television texts. European Journal of Cultural Studies 24(4): 887-900.

41.

Lotz

Amanda D

(2018a) Evolution or revolution? Television in transformation. Critical Studies in Television 13(4): 491-494.

42.

Mensah

(2021) About Netflix - amplifying diverse British voices in front of and behind the camera. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/amplifying-diverse-british-voices-in-front-of-and-behind-the-camera (accessed 21 January 2021).

43.

Netflix (2019) About Netflix - Netflix partners with India’s finest storytellers on 10 new original films. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-partners-with-indias-finest-storytellers-on-10-new-original-films (accessed 15 April 2019).

44.

Netflix Staff (2022) About Netflix - ‘Don’t Look Up’ inspires powerful conversations about the climate crisis. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/dont-look-up-inspires-powerful-conversations-about-the-climate-crisis (accessed 3 March 2022).

45.

O’Reilly

(2005) Cultural brands/branding cultures. Journal of Marketing Management 21(5–6): 573-588.

46.

Pallotta

(2020) About Netflix - ‘One Story Away’ campaign celebrates the power of storytelling. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/one-story-away-campaign (accessed 9 October 2020).

47.

Raats

Evens

(2021) If You can’t Beat Them, Be Them’: a critical analysis of local streaming platform and Netflix alternative Streamz. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research 37(70): 50-66.

48.

Robertson

(1995) Glocalization: time-space and homogeneity-heterogeneity. Global Modernities 2(1): 25-44.

49.

Rohn

(2015) International media branding. In: Siegert

Förster

Chan-Olmsted

, et al. (eds.) Handbook of Media Branding. Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, London: Springer, 81–95.

50.

Sarandos

(2021) Building a legacy of inclusion: results from our first film and series diversity tudy. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/building-a-legacy-of-inclusion (accessed 26 February 2021).

51.

Seabi

(2022) About Netflix - Netflix commits $1 million towards scholarships In Africa. In: Netflix Newsroom Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-invests-usd1-million-towards-scholarships-in-africa (accessed 19 January 2022).

52.

Sex Education (2019-). Netflix. Eleven Film.

53.

Sharp

Dawes

(2001) What is differentiation and how does it work? Journal of Marketing Management 17(7–8): 739-759.

54.

Shergill

(2021) About Netflix - coming soon: a universe of irresistible indian stories. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/coming-soon-a-universe-of-irresistible-indian-stories (accessed 31 March 2021).

55.

Siapera

(2010) Cultural Diversity and Global Media: The Mediation of Difference. Wiley-Blackwell.

56.

Stanhope

(2019) About Netflix - how Netflix is empowering future showrunners from all over the world. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/how-netflix-is-empowering-future-showrunners-from-all-over-the-world (accessed 12 December 2019).

57.

Straubhaar

Santillana

de Macedo Higgins Joyce

, et al. (2021) From Telenovelas to Netflix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

58.

Szczepanik

(2021) HBO Europe’s original programming in the era of streaming wars. In: Barra

Scaglioni

(eds) A European Television Fiction Renaissance: Premium Production Models and Transnational Circulation. London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 243–261.

59.

Terry

Hayfield

Clarke

, et al. (2017) Thematic analysis. In: Willig

Stainton Rogers

(eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology, 17–37.

60.

Turner

(2019) Approaching the cultures of use: Netflix, disruption and the audience. Critical Studies in Television 14(2): 222-232.

61.

Vaismoradi

Jones

Turunen

, et al. (2016) Theme development in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice 6(5): 100-110.

62.

Wayne

(2018) Netflix, Amazon, and branded television content in subscription video on-cemand portals. Media, Culture & Society 40(5): 725–741.

63.

Wheeler

(2021) About Netflix - Netflix UK commissions ‘Heartstopper,’ a new 8-part live action series from see-saw films. In: Netflix Newsroom. Available at: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-uk-commissions-heartstopper-series-from-see-saw-films (accessed 20 January 2021).

Streaming difference(s): Netflix and the branding of diversity

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References