The article examines the brand positioning strategy of Netflix in Poland within the broader context of global discourses of diversity and inclusivity. It is grounded in the assumption that the streaming platform has consistently constructed its image as a brand representing liberal values, deploying them both in its corporate communication and in local production and marketing practices. The article seeks to explore how Netflix’s global branding strategy has been adapted to the Polish socio-cultural context. The analysis demonstrates that during the first years of its presence on the Polish market, Netflix effectively used the discourse of diversity as a tool for distinguishing itself from the country’s conservative media and political landscape. The platform positioned itself as a modern, progressive, and socially engaged media actor capable of addressing topics marginalized by traditional broadcasters. At the same time, the author argues that inclusivity functioned primarily as an instrumental element of Netflix’s branding strategy, serving the accumulation of symbolic brand capital. Alongside demographic changes within streaming audiences and the growing popularity of conservative attitudes among younger viewers, the liberal discourse of diversity gradually began to lose its market effectiveness. As a result, Netflix increasingly shifted its communication and programming strategies toward more universal, folk-oriented, and emotionally safe narratives.
This paper introduces micro-short audiovisual forms—very brief videos ranging from a few seconds to several minutes, commonly distributed via TikTok, Instagram or other social media. These forms are defined not only by duration but by distinct formal and narrative qualities shaped by mobile viewing habits and platform algorithms. Integrating concepts from film and media studies, the analysis draws on classical narratology (e.g., plot, character, presented world) and postclassical approaches, including cognitive and transmedial narratology. A five-part typology is proposed: Nomads (standalone units), Chains (linear sequences), Mosaics (nonlinear thematic clusters), Excerpts (remixes), and Satellites (paratextual extensions). Micro-shorts are presented as narratively connected elements within broader media ecosystems, redefining modes of storytelling and engagement in the digital economy of attention.
This article contributes to both academic understanding of film literacy pedagogy and practical guidance for cultural institutions implementing streaming-based educational initiatives. By examining how European Commission audience development mandates translate into institutional practice, the article illuminates the mechanisms through which cultural policy frameworks shape educational outcomes. Simultaneously, by analysing concrete case studies of successful implementations, it provides actionable insights for film educators, cultural administrators, and policymakers regarding how streaming technologies can be purposefully repurposed toward film literacy objectives rather than accepting them as threats to educational missions.
This article examines personalization as a central mechanism in Netflix’s operation, in terms of user interface, branding strategy, and algorithmic content management. Tracing the platform’s historical development and the transformation of the media dispositif, the author argues that personalization has served as Netflix’s core identity marker from the outset, with the brand being built not around content but around a technologically enhanced user experience. The text explores how recommendation systems, microgenres, taste clusters, and algorithmic identities shape a complex structure of classification and reception. Personalization is understood here as a dynamic, multi-layered process embedded in a capitalist logic of datafication, which simultaneously offers users the illusion of autonomy and subjects them to a regime of prediction and engagement optimization. The analysis also addresses the influence of personalization on the production of Netflix Originals, aesthetic homogenization, and the redefinition of genre categories. The article ultimately raises the question of whether personalization functions as a genuine user tool—or as a myth inscribed in the platform’s strategic narrative.
The article seeks to answer the following question: To what extent is it possible to philosophize about the media through media images? This problem is analysed using the example of selected episodes of the anthological series Black Mirror. The author contrasts the theoretical insights of 20th- and 21st-century philosophers (Baudrillard, Flusser, Sloterdijk, Adorno, Horkheimer, Žižek) with examples of their pictorial implementation in Black Mirror episodes. The text explores two themes: the problem of appropriation of reality by the media, and issues related to the mechanisms of mass culture and possible ways to criticize them.
