Netflixization

This chapter introduces and applies the metaphor of ‘Netflixization’ to analysing and interrogating Higher Education (HE) in the UK. As streaming services have proliferated, their influence, particularly during the interregnum of the pandemic has increased. Starting by exploring the role of organizational metaphors in social theory, the chapter draws on empirical data to show how aspects of Netflix, in its content and delivery, form and function are adopted by contemporary Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK. This is especially prevalent in the ways in which Netflix uses distribution across regional, national international and transnational domains to reach audiences through vertical integration, characteristics also common to HEIs. It is shown how the conflation between media literacies and recreation means that traditional boundaries between work and leisure, education and entertainment are conflated. As the techniques and technologies of distribution are prevalent in the entertainment and education domains, there is the formation of the ‘postdigital’ realized in the ‘integral reality’ of Baudrillard’s later work.