Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Mediatization, communication, and algorithms: a theoretical-methodological proposal... 265 The basics Whenever you access the Netflix service, our rec - ommendations system strives to help you find a show or movie to enjoy with minimal effort. We estimate the likelihood that you will watch a par- ticular title in our catalog based on a number of factors including: • your interactions with our service (such as your viewing history and how you rated other titles), • other members with similar tastes and prefer- ences on our service, and information about the titles, such as their genre, categories, ac- tors, release year, etc. • In addition to knowing what you have watched on Netflix, to best personalize the recommen - dations we also look at things like: • the time of day you watch, • the devices you are watching Netflix on, and how long you watch. All of these pieces of data are used as inputs that we process in our algorithms. (An algorithm is a process or set of rules followed in a problem solv- ing operation.) The recommendations system does not include demographic information (such as age or gender) as part of the decision making process. If you’re not seeing something you want to watch, you can always search the entire catalog available in your country. We try to make searching as easy and quick as possible. When you enter a search query, the top results we return are based on the actions of other members who have entered the same or similar queries. Below is a description of how the system works over time, and how these pieces of information in- fluence what we present to you. “Jump starting” the recommendations system When you create your Netflix account, or add a new profile in your account, we ask you to choose