“Are you still watching?”:Tecnicity, Temporality, and Excess in Streaming Consumption

Keywords: Mediation Theory, Streaming; Audience, Excess, Latin American School of Communication

Abstract

This article understands binge-watching, binge-searching, and speed-watching practices as forms of contemporary consumption in streaming platforms. Recurring to the Mediation Theory and defining excess as the fruition of representation, this work proposes a theoretical study of streaming consumption practices as technicities impregnated with “excessive temporalities”. The article points to the relevant presence of Martin-Barbero’s thinking as a necessary alternative (and an opposition to technicism) for interpreting digital consumption. It also proposes the replacement of excess as an ontologically qualitative cultural category. As a final consideration, “excessive temporalities” of consumption are theorized in three subdivisions: 1) Excess in terms of the fruition in the quantity of the represented content (binge-watching), 2) Excess in terms of the fruition during the peregrination to the represented content (binge-searching), and 3) Excess in terms of the fruition in the rhythm of the represented content (speed-watching).

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Author Biography

Anderson Lopes da Silva, Universidade de São Paulo

Ph.D. in Communication Sciences (University of São Paulo). Associate researcher at the Research Group on Languages and Discourses in the Media (GELiDis, University of São Paulo/CNPq) and at the Center for Serial Fiction and Audiovisual Studies (NEFICS, Federal University of Paraná/CNPq).

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Published
2020-12-29