What is it about?
This article explores how Netflix uses algorithms and data from Mexican viewers to shape its programming in ways that resonate with local tastes. Since 2015, Netflix has increasingly included stories and traits typical of Mexican melodrama—a genre deeply rooted in telenovelas—even when those stories are presented in formats such as comedy, political thrillers, or biopics. Through a mix of industry analysis and textual interpretation, the research shows that Netflix both pokes fun at melodramatic conventions and embraces them as a tool to connect with audiences on cultural and emotional levels.
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Why is it important?
This study highlights how algorithms do more than match viewers with content: they influence what kinds of stories global platforms choose to tell. In Mexico, Netflix’s data-driven approach has helped the platform create or highlight series that carry familiar emotional patterns and cultural themes—bringing it closer to the narrative logic of local melodrama. This suggests that streaming platforms are becoming not just distributors of foreign content, but active participants in shaping a local cultural imaginary, potentially competing with traditional national producers for audiences and cultural influence
Perspectives
This article has been a great source of satisfaction because it managed to hint at something that nowadays seems very obvious, but at the time was still emerging.
ELIA MARGARITA CORNELIO MARI
Universidad Juarez Autonoma de Tabasco
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mexican Melodrama in the Age of Netflix: Algorithms for Cultural Proximity, Comunicación y Sociedad, January 2020, Universidad de Guadalajara,
DOI: 10.32870/cys.v2020.7481.
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