The Role of Television as a Cultural Forum in Society

This article shows how to find a place in society by analyzing the role of television as a cultural forum. This article will be looking at Netflix and Internet forums such as The TVIV in the same service as contemporary and cult. However, also with a special focus on Netflix and Internet streaming as a new era of TV generation; I will examine the contemporary relationship that new television is trying to establish with people.

In the early 1950s, television was not involved in our lives. It was considered as a belonging sub-culture rather than seen as a cultural object. For the factors that cause this are mostly economical standards. Rather than being a communication and sharing event as we currently live, broadcasting in the early years of television was concerned with propaganda and message matter. Later on, the evolution of technology and the innovations brought about by it, led to the development of the social economic life television object that developed and changed. Previously, the act of watching television in a commonplace was replaced by a more personal monitoring function. Actually, the routine of watching television as a collective appeared because of the desire of sharing ideas about the broadcasting at that moment. Since the human brain is designed to conceive about an idea of everything it observes, the act of watching television commonly has started to take place in the society to satisfy this need.

In 2007, online DVD rental service Netflix announced the introduction of a Video-on-Demand (VOD) service. By 2014, Netflix not only suggests a large online library of film and TV but even offers original content in the form of serialized drama and comedy. In 2013, Netflix Original announced the first self-commissioned series which is House of Cards. After that, the company started an increase that even they could not have predicted. Therefore, society has had the new television form that is Netflix. Meanwhile, the programs that we used to have started to leave their places to publications that would serve this culture. These programs became a kind of huge marketing strategy for Netflix.

One of the most remarkable features that online publishing brings to television culture was binge-watching. After FOX channel Arrested Development was shut down after 3 seasons, it signed with Netflix to broadcast the 4th season. Netflix released its 15th episode at the same time. According to Mareike Jenner (2014): ‘’Netflix argued at the time that this was a response to assumed viewer behavior of so-called binge-watching, supposing that viewers would wish to watch more than one episode in one sitting or, at least, schedule their Arrested Development consumption as they pleased. ’’

In addition, online forums such as TVIV and its environment have allowed this modern cult to emerge and quickly progressed. People started to share and exchange their ideas and comments with other audiences from around the world. So, this leads to the established contemporary shared collective in television culture.