
How Netflix Is Deepening Our Cultural Echo Chambers - JumpCrisscross
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/technology/how-netflix-is-deepening-our-cultural-echo-chambers.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_dk_20170111&nl=dealbook&nl_art=3&nlid=65508833&ref=headline&te=1
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niftich
It's not just Netflix, and it's not related to broadcasting vs. on-demand, or
interest-based recommendation algorithms vs. an externally curated playlist.

Rather, today, we have a vastly increased reach of content production houses
that produce niche content -- and ability for that content to find its
audience and vice versa.

In the "olden" days, mass media had to be safe and maximally inoffensive to
the largest plurality of people: remember the interracial Star Trek kiss?
Today, this is largely still true, but mass media competes with niche media
for people's finite attention, and has to overcome virtue-signalling snobbery
as well.

