Is Netflix a Form of Television?: An Affordance Analysis on the Connection Between Television’s Post-Network Era and Netflix

Abstract

Central in this affordance analysis is the connection between the post-network era of television and Netflix. For this reason, the research question is: how do the affordances of Netflix relate to the affordances of the post-network era of television? According to Amanda Lotz, the post-network era of television is the third and most current era of television and according to Mareike Jenner, Netflix is a video-on-demand service where people can watch films and television series. The affordances are based upon the definition of James Gibson and more specific on the affordance types of Matt Bower. The affordance types by Bower that have been used are the media, temporal, navigation, emphasis and technical affordances, since the other types are not relevant for this analysis. These affordances were used to examine the connection between flow and the post-network era of television and the connection between media mobility, the post-network era, and Netflix. The definitions of flow by Raymond Williams and William Uricchio were used to see the relation with the affordances of the post-network era. So, this means the definition of flow by Williams and the types of flow, viewer-centered flow and metadata protocols flow, by Uricchio. The definition of media platform by Chuck Tryon has been used, especially the subdivisions of platform, spatial, and temporal mobility. The results are repeated at the end of the analysis, where concluded can be said that there are more resemblances between the post-network era of television and Netflix than differences. After this conclusion, also a prediction is made for the future of the post-network era of television and Netflix, and a suggestion will be given for future researches.