Bending the Rules of Entertainment: Foucauldian Postmodernism and New Media

This is an analysis of non-traditional forms of entertainment media, including streaming services and creator-led platforms. This analysis was written through the lens of Foucauldian Postmodernism (Michel Foucault).

Introduction

New forms of entertainment such as streaming services and YouTube are overtaking traditional media by incorporating internet technology and social media tactics. Rather than erasing the work done by broadcast television and in-theatre film, these younger mediums have built upon the formers’ successes and reworked them to better suit the audiences of the 2010s and late 2000s. These companies and their respective content creators have greater insight into their audiences, which may suggest that elements of Panopticism are key to their success. From a Foucauldian standpoint, this is the next evolutionary step in entertainment. As a result, those who research such platforms tend to use unorthodox methodologies, such as a hybrid between qualitative and quantitative methods, in order to fully encapsulate the strategic, technological, and social aspects of streaming service and video sharing websites. 

Disruption of Traditional Entertainment Media

The advent of streaming services and YouTube has drastically changed the landscape of entertainment media consumption, specifically through the integration of internet technology into these platforms. Streaming services have filled an untapped reservoir of opportunity that requires “breaking the rules” of traditional platforms and YouTube has acted as a grassroots option for these young media giants. 

Most streaming services are web-based, meaning they do not “live” in the world of traditional television. Burroughs even goes so far as to call Netflix the “internet television” (Burroughs, 2019, p. 3). To Burroughs, Netflix itself is a network, just a network of the internet. He claims that an internet-based television service has the following advantages over traditional television: lack of advertisements, budget-friendliness, access to algorithmic and crowdsourcing-like technologies, and the temporal convenience of watching a show anytime, anywhere, and on any device (Burroughs, 2019). Audiences can have a more customizable and convenient viewing experience with streaming services in comparison to that of traditional television. From the recommended shows to the user interface of a streaming service, the focus of streaming services is the individual rather than a family. In conjunction, streaming service content is more specific toward the niche tastes that audiences demand. As Burroughs previously mentioned, some streaming services do not use any advertisements. Therefore, these services need to rely on the quality and popularity of their content in order to gain revenue. Burroughs claims that original content with complex narratives, cinematic quality, and interactivity is imperative in this strategy (Burroughs, 2019). According to this perspective, streaming services should improve the shows watched by viewers. Burrows has the advantage of writing one of the newest articles that will be covered in this literature review. He was able to analyze streaming services, specifically Netflix, in a stage beyond their infancies. From a Foucauldian standpoint, this gives Burrows the hindsight to review the entire history of streaming services up until the present day, which is arguably the most successful moment in time for these companies so far. He is able to recontextualize information about present-day, fully-realized streaming services in regards to their evolution up until the year 2019. 

On the other hand, Tefertiller claims that the technologies used in the production of the content may be the determining factor in the split between the traditional movie theatres and streaming films at home. Although streaming services are best known for their television shows, they also provide access to original film content and other popular films that have been released to home video. Tefertiller’s study attempts to find out if emotional gratification may implore audiences to attend a traditional movie screening outside of their home (Tefertiller, 2017). After showing participants five films of various genres, Tefertiller surveyed each individual on their cognitive gratification (Tefertiller, 2017). He found that individuals may be more likely to see a film in a theatre if it employs “big-budget, escapist, thrilling movies that depend on special effects, exciting visuals, and big sounds” (Tefertiller, 2017). It appears that the audio-visual technologies that are exclusively available in movie theatres may drive audiences out of their homes if a film makes extensive use of these technologies. Otherwise, the financial and physical convenience of streaming a film at home may be a more favorable choice. Tefertiller is the only author to chose to write primarily about film streaming. Even though streaming services are best known for their shows, they do produce original feature-length films too. Similarly, the film and television industry share many characteristics but ultimately, they do function differently because of the nature of their mediums. So, it would make sense for authors to take film streaming into account when discussing how streaming services are disrupting the entertainment industry. 

Radošinská argues a similar point, in which she claims that the branding of shows by streaming services and removal of the week-to-week serialization structure plays a role in the appeal of stream service shows. Rather than using advertisements from outside companies to garner brand loyalty in customers, streaming services themselves become and build brands within their own content. All original content is branded with the identity of its respective streaming service (Radošinská, 2017). In order for this strategy to work, audiences who enjoy Netflix's original content will have to personally align themselves with the Netflix brand. This will result in audience brand loyalty toward Netflix and will discourage them from unsubscribing and canceling their account. 

This sentiment is partially shared by authors Guo and Lee, who used rhetorical analysis in their study concerning two famous YouTubers, Kevin Wu and Ryan Higa, and their respective individual attempts to address the lack of Asian American representation in entertainment (Guo & Lee, 2013). The two YouTubers, like most other content creators on the website, are known for their homemade original videos. Like the sub-brands described by Radošinská, Wu and Higa act as leaders of their own brands. Unlike traditional television and film, individuals on YouTube can act as their own producers, actors, directors, writers, and advertisers. This creates greater diversity and specificity in content, which in turn allows audience members to identify with specific YouTubers and their channels. In many ways, YouTube is a microcosm of the streaming service landscape, as it acts as an opportunity for more intimate connections between producers and consumers of entertainment.

However, none of this will be successful unless the original content itself is interesting enough for an audience to stay with the service. Not all streaming service audiences have the same taste in shows, so sub-brands of content must be created under the larger brand of a streaming service. Radošinská states that Netflix solves this problem by having shows and their respective characters act like a brand that is suited for a very specific demographic (Radošinská, 2017). An individual viewer may not enjoy all the content on Netflix, but they may enjoy a few shows (or “brands”) enough to continue subscribing to the service. After all most streaming service users will have to pay the same amount despite how much content they consume. Also, serialized shows are consumed differently through streaming services. Radošinská states that streaming services will often release entire seasons of a show all at once, which allows for binge-watching (Radošinská, 2017). Serialized shows, which have a consistent plot throughout a season, are typically released one episode at a time on traditional television. With streaming services, the suspense and element of waiting are removed from the serialization equation. Audiences may finish shows at their own pace, which may mean watching entire seasons of television in one sitting. Narrative elements like cliffhangers and episode recaps may become less effective because the viewer does not need to wait to watch the next episode. Content must be exciting enough on its own to incite a binge-watching session. Radošinská focuses primarily on Netflix Original content, and not the content that Netflix has bought the streaming rights for. This includes content from traditional television shows and films that have been adapted for streaming service platforms. So, not all content presented on streaming service platforms follows these narrative rules.

In relation, Sánchez-Olmos and Hidalgo-Marí found that many televised Spanish-language shows were being reposted and frequently watched on YouTube. Like with streaming services, not all the content is native to the platform. The two authors found that these uploads were extremely popular on YouTube with both male and female users, despite the shows being primarily coded toward females (Sánchez-Olmos and Hidalgo-Marí, 2016). This may suggest that YouTube acts as a space for individuals to explore content that they would not have watched otherwise.

Finally, Bock explores the idea of representation within the context of cop-watching or the act of civilians filming and posting videos of misbehaving police officers. The affordability of smartphones and video-posting platforms, like YouTube, have made it easy to share video footage (Bock, 2016). Nowadays, almost everyone has a phone camera on-hand at all times because smartphones are no longer considered a luxury item. In addition, social media allows for video-sharing without the need for news outlet access or any journalistic credentials. The process of cop-watching is more practical now than it was before, and the knowledge of abusive behavior by police is easier to access. After interviewing groups of cop-watchers, Bock realized that many individuals who participate in this activity have faced abuse by the police themselves or are close to an individual who has faced similar abuse (Bock, 2016). This shows evidence of the democratization of popular content, which also leads to individuals identifying with the videos they consume. This may be interpreted as a form of sub-branding online content. Unlike the concepts of the previously mentioned authors, cop-watching is not present on both YouTube and streaming services. However, Bock’s research still proves that the accessibility and personal attachments to content are effective methods of popularizing content. 

Although streaming services and YouTube borrow some aspects from traditional television, such as having “channels” in the form of various genre selections based on taste, integrating new technologies improve the efficiency and accessibility of content consumption. This does not mean that traditional ways of viewing television and film will be completely irradicated, but it does suggest that the implementation of new technologies in streaming services provide audiences with more control over a diverse range of viewing experiences.

Panopticism, Foucault, and New Media

Many social scientists have attempted to apply Foucault’s theories to the trends of today, specifically by using his concepts to dissect the sociological hierarchy within establishments. We must first unpack the root of his work. For the purpose of this literature review, we will be focusing primarily on his book, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977) and Garland’s interpretations of Foucault in “What is a ‘history of the present’? On Foucault’s genealogies and their critical preconditions” (Garland, 2014) as an introduction to Foucaultian social theories. 

Foucault’s theories cannot be summed up by one set of guidelines, most likely because he was constantly expanding upon his own previous works. Garland mentions that Foucaultian theory is difficult to apply to various situations because each of Foucault’s works and theories was tailored to an extremely particular issue (Garland, 2014). His theories are meant to act as a “family tree” for interpreting present-day problems. He did not see present-day problems as spontaneously occurring events, but the result of long-standing, cultural standards and institutions (2014). To Foucault, understanding the history behind a system by working backward could help one gain better insight into its current counterpart. 

However, there are still underlying themes within Foucault’s body of work, specifically surrounding the concepts of power and knowledge. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault attempts to analyze the relationship between publicity, discipline, and surveillance by recounting the history of penalty in Western culture. Within the penal system, unnatural forms of security and scrutiny are normalized through public humiliation (publicity), repetitive labor practices (discipline), and panopticism (surveillance). Ultimately, the goal of the modern prison is not to rehabilitate but to control the bodies and behavior of prisoners in ways that would be considered inhumane and abnormal in the outside world (Foucault, 1977). This concept is best explained in Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon or a prison concept in which cells reside along the outermost walls of the building while a central guard tower allows for a near-omniscient view of the inmates. In an ideal Panopticon, the inmates are unable to see the guard at all (Foucault, 1977). Therefore, only the guards have knowledge of the inmates’ activities and the physical layout of the prison, which means that only they hold the power within the system. Foucault believed that knowledge and power were inherently tied to each other in this sense; the granting of knowledge equates to the granting of power and the withholding of knowledge equates to the withholding of power. The connection between knowledge and power is central to Foucauldian social theories, whether he is discussing the penal system or other institutions. Similarly, the concept of panopticism is no longer exclusive to prisons, and its ideas are being applied to law-abiding citizens in non-penal institutions, including in the realm of entertainment. 

YouTube itself may have evolved from reality television of the early 2000s. This is most evident in how reality television emphasizes elements of improvisation. YouTube is also used to watch those who are typically considered the “watchers”. This is an example of new media flipping the narrative of power is explored by Meyer, Fallah, and Wood when they discuss the treatment of mentally ill women in reality television. They claim that the downfall of young female celebrities is fetishized by the media, specifically when that collapse is attributed to mental health issues (Meyer, Fallah, & Wood, 2011). Likewise, reality television has created a surreal version of reality, especially in the show Undercover Boss. St. John explores how this show enforces self-governing in low-wage workplaces by temporarily suspending our disbelief about the manager’s authoritative power. In Undercover Boss, a manager of an establishment (usually a fast-food restaurant) disguises himself in order to surveil his workplace undetected by his employees (St. John, 2015). In other words, this is a non-penal example of discipline and Panopticism. Fast-food employees are made to perform physically demanding and repetitive labor (discipline) until this form of labor becomes normalized in the workplace. Those who capture footage of these young female celebrities and undercover managers are capitalizing on their own ability to improvise. The most drama-infused moments are emphasized in reality television or tabloid news, despite the partially unscripted nature of the original footage. This is also an element of YouTube, in which YouTubers must improvise with the resources they can self-produce.

Again, Bock claims that this do-it-yourself version of surveillance is a direct result of two factors. Firstly, the affordability of smartphones and video-posting platforms have made it easy to share video footage (Bock, 2016). Cop-watchers feel the need to hold the police accountable for their misdeeds through reverse-panopticism and public humiliation. Traditionally, the police force (or their historical counterpart) is an authority figure. Only police officers have the power to arrest civilians, just as a Panopticon guard is the only one with the power to see the prisoners. However, cop-watching provides civilians with a channel for their own system of authority and justice outside the institution of the police by publicizing abuse by police. This would be an attempt at normalizing a two-way accountability system that holds police and civilians equally responsible for their actions. In this situation, YouTube becomes a tool for reversing the digital Panopticon roles.

Dovey and Lister state that there is not a clear, binary divide between traditional television and streaming services, but the utilization of new technologies by streaming services is directly related to more contemporary, less domestic lifestyles. Dovey and Lister claim that streaming services are an “evolution” of traditional television, not a completely separate medium (Dovey and Lister, 2009). In regards to the structure of traditional television, they write, 

“This tradition clearly identifies the importance of the schedule in determining and reflecting the rhythms of daily family life, as well as the importance of the television as a material technology situated in specific domestic spaces used by particular peoples at different times” (Dovey and Lister, 2009, p. 134).

Traditional television relied on the assumption that people watched shows as a family, at the same time every day, and on an actual television. The television was the center of the domestic household. However, streaming services now allow individual viewers to watch shows on non-television devices completely undisturbed by other family members. This may appear advantageous to audiences, as individual family members may have different schedules or may prefer different television shows and devices to each other. From a Foucauldian angle, this represents a gradual transition from traditional broadcast television to streaming services, and possibly YouTube as well. 

When analyzing some of these articles, it is necessary to take into account the time difference between Foucault’s original works and their contemporary interpretations. Discipline and Punish was written several decades before the other articles mentioned in this literature review. This means that Foucault did not have the ability to incorporate our present-day trends in media and technology into his writing. However, the historical disparity between Foucault’s work and its current counterparts is central to evaluating 21st-century versions of Foucaultian theories. However, this literature review has shown that the boundaries of panopticism reach far beyond the walls of the penal system and into the institutions of our daily lives. 

Hybrid Methodologies-Quantitative and Qualitative

Employing quantitative methods when studying YouTube and streaming services allows one to use the website’s analytic and organizational services as its own research tool. YouTube and streaming services have an enormous library of content. One cannot possibly find what they want to watch without some help from the platform. So, YouTube uses algorithms to suggest videos to users based on several criteria, most notably relevance to one’s own watch or search history (“Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube”, 2019). Additionally, the website provides easily accessible quantitative data on the popularity of videos. This is exhibited in likes, dislikes, view counts, upload dates, runtime, and subscriptions, which can all be seen by anyone at any time (“YouTube”, 2019). This information is not always readily available for streaming services, but streaming services use algorithmic technology in a similar manner. So, it is logical to apply similar methodologies as well. From a quantitative perspective, this bounty of computable mechanisms and information is justification enough for using quantitative methods, as these aspects are inherently part of YouTube and streaming services. Schmitt, Rieger, Rutkowski, and Ernst use this to their advantage when researching the connection between extremist and counter-extremist videos. The researchers collected numeric data on a video’s “first click” and “second click” relevance, which allowed them to determine if YouTube’s algorithm associates the two genres of videos. In their findings, the researchers discovered that counter-extremist and extremist messages were often related, leading them to believe that the YouTube algorithm is faulty (Schmitt, Rieger, Rutkowski, & Ernst, 2018). This algorithmic recommendation function is automatic, so it is logical to use YouTube’s built-in tools in an experiment about the website’s content. In addition, by counting “first click” and “second click” recommendations, the researchers are using YouTube as intended by the website. Everyday users may not conduct quantitative studies on the videos they consume, but they may choose to watch videos based on algorithmic recommendations. Consequently, the results of this study should ideally mirror real-life YouTube usage. This is cause for concern because the findings suggest that the average YouTube user may accidentally stumble upon an extremist video after watching a counter-extremist video. However, the researchers themselves have admitted that using a wider range of methods could have benefitted their study. Though they briefly used textual analysis toward the end of their procedure, they still recommended potentially using user surveys, a qualitative method, in future studies in order to analyze the media effects of extremist videos (Schmitt et. al. 2018). While the researchers attempted to use YouTube in ways similar to everyday users, they may have been biased in several ways, including having a shared, homogenous goal (to answer their research question), not using the website for entertainment purposes, or having above-average background knowledge on the topic of extremist content. So, there may still be benefits to using qualitative methodologies to decipher the individual usage of a diverse set of everyday users.

Similarly, authors Kim, Paek, and Lynn were able to use YouTube’s search function to find data on the imagery of smoking fetish videos within the general adolescent community. Like the previous authors, these researchers attempted to use YouTube with the same tools that an average user would. In this case, this was done by typing “smoking fetish” and “smoking fetishism” into YouTube’s search bar and collecting the top 1,000 video URLs. Since YouTube’s default search settings order video searches by relevance to the keywords, this list was eventually narrowed down to the top 200 videos. The authors also noted that this would best mirror the usage of the average young YouTube user, as they claim that the majority of users would not change the search settings from its default. Kim et. al. eventually found that smoking fetish YouTube videos have increased from 2007 to 2008, and that smoking fetish videos outnumber anti-smoking videos on the website (Kim, Paek, Lynn, 2010). Once again, the authors chose to utilize YouTube’s quantitative user services in their methods. In this study, the researchers explicitly attempted to copy the usage patterns of an average user (adolescent, in this situation). Additionally, it is understandable that a very large sample size was needed for the experiment to be valid. Yet, it is unlikely that an average user of any age would look through 200 videos from one search in one sitting, let alone 1,000. As a result, this method is still somewhat removed from genuine YouTube usage. However, using such a large sample size of videos and reducing the data to its numeric significance allowed the authors to recognize long-term trends such as an increase in a specific genre over time. This task could not have been accomplished without quantitative methods. 

Using qualitative methodologies can help researchers understand the novelty and originality that are associated with YouTube and streaming service content. To understand the uniqueness of specific channels or videos, a researcher may choose to use textual analysis to break down the fine details of individual content. Shifman applied textual analysis to viral YouTube content in order to determine the qualitative factors that push individual videos toward internet fame. It is important to note that Shifman does use quantitative and qualitative methods in the study, but the majority of her experiment is performed under qualitative methodologies (Shifman, 2012). The sample size for this study was relatively large, including thirty popular videos of differing genres, channels, and runtimes. Shifman first studied each individual video to find common themes between them and then analyzed each theme in relation to the popularity of its respective videos. The author reasoned that the most popular content is universally understood, relevant to contemporary media, and are easily copied by other users (Shifman, 2012). Since the videos did not appear to be related in any way prior to textual analysis and connection of themes, qualitative methods provided Shifman with a way to find the underlying secrets to virality on YouTube. This could not have been achieved with solely quantitative methods as certain themes are not easily quantifiable. In addition, though multiple videos may share a single theme, the theme may be manifested in different ways. This is especially true with the video medium, where a theme can reveal itself visually, auditorily, or narratively. 

Similarly, Petersen writes that watching streaming service content can be a social event among the youth. By surveying college students, he found that the act of watching such shows can connect people, even if they are not watching the show at the same time or place (Petersen, 2016). College students may not have the same schedules as their academic peers. As a result, they may not be able to watch traditional television together, and streaming services become more favorable. Radošinská’s ideas and Petersen’s findings culminate in audiences having a greater understanding of how content functions in society. Since audiences are conversing about shows online, they are gathering more insight on entertainment in general. This idea is shared by Dovey and Lister, who briefly claim that audiences are now the “new experts” on popular media (Dovey and Lister, 2009). The two authors state that streaming services are part of Media Studies 2.0, which is not a binary opposite of Media Studies 1.0. Therefore, a nuanced medium needs a nuanced methodology, in the form of a hybrid method.

Experiments with more comprehensive, integrative results on streaming services and YouTube tend to use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods within their procedures. Sánchez-Olmos and Hidalgo-Marí used both the automatic measurement features and textual analysis in their study regarding gender and Spanish broadcast television re-uploads on YouTube. As with Kim’s et. al. study, these two researchers utilized the default relevance option on YouTube’s search function to find their video samples (Kim et. al., 2010; Sánchez-Olmos & Hidalgo-Marí, 2016). As an additional quantitative step, Sánchez-Olmos and Hidalgo-Marí also counted the number of female, male, and non-specified uploaders and viewers by checking the Gmail account associated with their respective YouTube accounts. After conducting a final textual analysis on the sampled videos, Sánchez-Olmos and Hidalgo-Marí determined that male YouTube users interacted more with the content despite it being coded toward the female gender (Sánchez-Olmos & Hidalgo-Marí, 2016). This study is not just about the gender of users but its relationship between gendered text. So, textual analysis is a clear choice for the researchers. Also, since the researchers were trying to study how average users watch Spanish television on YouTube, it is logical that they would use the default relevance search setting. The website is also owned by Google (“YouTube for Press”, 2019), which provides even more opportunity for collecting quantitative data on users (in this case, with Gmail). Though they are using YouTube as a research tool, the text they are studying originated on traditional broadcast television. Yet, the re-uploading of this content on the website gave Sánchez-Olmos and Hidalgo-Marí an opportunity to use quantitative methods that would be impossible otherwise. 

Schmitt, Rieger, Rutkowski, and Ernst’s study and Shifman’s study may have been on opposite sides of the methodology spectrum, but they did use some similar techniques when researching the same platform. As previously discussed, Schmitt, Rieger, Rutkowski, and Ernst’s study was primarily quantitative and Shifman’s was mostly qualitative. Yet, both sets of authors used YouTube’s mathematical data and textual analysis. Similar to Shifman, Schmitt et. al. attempted to find connecting themes between the video descriptions, titles, and keywords of each individual video ((Schmitt et. al. 2018). Likewise, Shifman also utilized another built-in numeric function, popularity lists (Shifman, 2012). Popularity lists are no longer provided by YouTube’s homepage as of 2019, but it was at one point a valid method of measuring the highest view counts on the website (“YouTube”, 2019). Although both groups of researchers were studying very different genres of YouTube videos, the fact that both texts were available on the same online platform may have led to the use of hybrid methodologies. 

Streaming services and YouTube’s most unique, popular content is worthy of both mathematical and holistic analysis-which poses a challenge for those who choose to research it. They are platforms that cannot be properly studied without addressing its algebraic principles or its subjective nature of their viewership and content. Although using a hybrid methodology may seem more complex or time-consuming, the findings of such a study will reflect all aspects of YouTube and streaming services.

Conclusion

By using a Postmodern Foucauldian perspective to analyze streaming services and YouTube as new forms of online entertainment, one can better comprehend how these two mediums have become so popular and ubiquitous with the present time. In relation, the methodologies used to study these mediums requires a researcher to pull from both quantitative and qualitative methods, especially in the case of YouTube. So, one may ask, how are YouTube content creators and streaming service companies using technological Panopticism to streamline their performance as the frontrunners of new entertainment?

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