Romance in the age of streaming: Netflix contents and consumption strategies

Abstract

This article examines how a group of women appropriates romantic content on Netflix in Costa Rica. It seeks to understand the ambiguities and tensions inherent to the consumption of romantic content in the media and its particularities within algorithmic cultures. Although the relationship between media and romantic content has occupied feminist thought for decades, little research has considered its centrality in the rise of digital platforms such as Netflix. By examining the use of this platform in Costa Rica, we seek to fill this knowledge gap. This feminist approach pays “attention to the specific experiential intersections between power, incarnation [embodiment] and visibility that are embedded and facilitated by algorithmic mechanisms” (Bishop et al., 2020, p. 730) and allows us to analyze the ways in which the platform presents romantic content and how women relate to the platform contents.