Summary
 |
| Director Martin Scorsese says the art form of cinema needs to be protected against streaming services. |
Response
The BBC news story “Are streaming algorithms really damaging film?” really attracted me when I was browsing news among current news stories on Wednesday morning. This topic reminded me that media streaming platforms on the Internet outstrip traditional services on TV and cinema. During lockdown, streaming services are an alternative source of entertainment for watching on-demand shows and keeping movie experiences alive. In my view, I am optimistic about streaming algorithms, not as Martin Scorsese is, but I am not sure whether streaming algorithms devalue films or not.
I do not quite agree with Scorsese that cinema is being devalued in movie contents. Although steaming platforms provide recommendations based on our viewing habits, not all of them damage the art form of contents as curations are happening behind the scenes without us knowing them, such as the Criterion Channel. In addition, I concurred with Elinor Carmi, who said that streaming-service algorithms present different types of contents on films and music to meet our personalization. Most movies we watch on streaming services like Netflix use algorithms to meet our preferences and viewing behaviors. “Emily in Paris” and “The Queen’s Gambit” are the most popular movie series and I am one of the watchers who had spent massive amounts of time watching these romantic and drama series on these sites.
However, I believe there are other reasons to reduce watching movies on cinema. First, during the lookdown of pandemics, cinemas are shut to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Cinemas are places with a high risk of easily spreading germs because of the lack of airflow moving and being crowded areas. Secondly, people feel uncomfortable to spend their time in a theatre. Watching movies among people who may be sick or infected with musty smell makes us worry and panic in spite of covering with face masks. Also, sometimes it is uncomfortable to sit on small seats with limited space, while watching a movie at home provides a larger space where we can stretch and lie on the couch anytime and eat whatever we want. This also prevents ourselves getting infected and spreading infectious agents to others.
Therefore, it is hard to justify whether streaming algorithms are really damaging film or not. It depends on each individuals preference and the purpose why we watch. Everyone just enjoys watching what they want that meets their favorable viewing habits. In my opinion, cinema is not being reduced on the value of art forms as they always appear in the scenes, which are hard to see, but if we take a look closer, we will see them.
______________________
Question
What are some negative and positive effects of streaming-service algorithms?
______________________
Reference
- Taylor, A. (2021, February 21). Are streaming algorithms really damaging film?. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56085924
Like Earth, I disagree with Martin Scorsese that the rise of streaming platforms such as NetFlix is harmful to content. Certainly, a lot of rubbish is streamed on such services, but not only are those shows popular, they are often of high quality. I have not watched Emily in Paris so cannot comment on it, but I have watched The Queen's Gambit, and it deserves the high praise it has won from both viewers and critics. It's an excellent piece of drama, made specifically for the streaming platform. In fact, I thought that The Queen's Gambit was so good that I watched it twice; it was even more enjoyable the second time round.
ReplyDeleteAlso worth noting, I think, is that a lot of the films shown in cinemas are not great. When they arrived on NetFlix, for example, I watched the Twilight series of films, and whilst they were entertaining, that was all they were. And they were created for traditional cinema release.
What Martin Scorsese said is, in my opinion, true to a certain extent. I agree that streaming is harmful. However, I personally think that in fact, streaming is not harmful to the film industry, but rather the viewers. As we all know, the streaming algorithm works based on the user's habits. It makes suggestions based on our viewing history. For example, if you like watching Korean series, it will mostly be the case that your next suggestion will also be Korean drama. This may sound harmless, but imagine if the user starts browsing violence film, then the next suggestion will potentially be another aggressive movie. At the end, it will shape only one-sided opinion and at the end they will be stuck only in their echo chamber. However, if the algorithm worked a bit differently, in which it suggest another non-relevant recommendations, it would be better for the users:)
ReplyDeleteAs I read anik's thoughtful response to the power that algorithms have over us, I wondered about the other algorithms that decide what we do: I mean the ones that run in our brains that determine our responses to things in the world around us. Are these internal algorithms also harmful to us? Do we have more control over them than we have over the actions of NetFlix's algorithms?
DeleteI actually like NetFlix's algorithms, which tend to suggest things that I will enjoy. But I don't take my movie and series watching very seriously, and I also get input to my brain algorithms from other sources, such as recommendations from friends, and reviews in the newspapers I read. If the New York Times or a friend recommend something, I might watch it, or read it in the case of a book. When I first saw heard of if The Queen's Gambit sounded a bit odd, and not the usual mindless action or silliness that I like when I want to relax, but the reviews that I trust were excellent, so I watched it. And I loved it.
When I'm browsing for books, I like the way Amazon presents the recommendations from its algorithm: "People who bought this also bought ..." and for a bit more variety, "You might also be interested in ..." I don't know whether I'm right or not, but Amazon seems more interested in helping me break out of the echo chamber that Anik rightly worries about.
It is a great summary depicting the considerations of algorithms streaming. Personally, I do not think that these steaming can devalue any form of arts. The art itself has their values regardless of how they stream. Telling more, music can be streamed in any form, both online or alive like concert, people still listen to music which they choose the genre of music they like. As the same way, series and movies industry is able to remain the revenue that normally come from the same group of people. To be more extended, people also choose the same kind of movies to watch either they go to cinemas or home. Additionally, algorithms streaming let people who have narrow board of watching experience various kind of movies or series without spending a lot of money for cinema.
ReplyDeleteHowever, algorithms streaming makes some people having bad habits. Someone cannot control themselves and exceed the limit of your health watching the online streaming all day.
This topics reminds me how happy am I when I was stepping inside the cinema and waiting for the movie that I really love to watch and wait for, every wonderful moment that I gain is such memorable.
ReplyDeleteCinema is the place where people can make them into the cause for gather around and spend times laughing and thrilling together. Now it is the rise of streaming which people pay for the service and watch the available movie at home, individually. It's the thing that we suppose to do under the Social-Distancing time, but Streaming also take the happy moment with your friend, also with the social skill that human should have away, for example one of my friend is spending time watching series, anime all day, refusing my invitation to hangout and worse, forget to do his part of the group project. And why the streaming is attract to the people in the most level, firstly to the producer and director, Streaming platform can let them go wild on their project, Zack Snyder's upcoming film is 4 hours is very obvious example, studio and cinema will not allow the movie with that length to project(even Scorsese's movie is 3 hour and a half), but streaming can allow that, as long as they have some fresh content to persuade people to watch and pay, and the audience of streaming will take it from there, they have to managing the time themselves. it's really fun and charged-up while I spend 1-2hours choosing and watching contents on Streaming but it will hurt you for sure if you spend half a day to watch something on streaming like my friend that I mentioned above.
Reading Poom's comment, I thought about my own use of streaming on NetFlix and the other services I occasionally use. While I think the dangers that Poom identifies are real, I think there is also another side. Sometimes friends and I watch something together at my home, and unlike in the cinema, that gives us the option to take quick break should we want to. It's not a cinema experience, but it is sociable. Also, I often talk about the things I watch alone with other friends, for example, after we watched "The Queen's Gambit", we had lots to talk about, so I'm not sure that streaming needs to be negative for socializing.
Delete