Series Under Threat

Lockdown has given us an occasion to discover new television series and to revisit others. TV series accompany us in our ordinary lives, but they can also be a resource or refuge in extraordinary situations. As the enduring success of Friends proves, they provide us with universes of comfort. TV series provide strong common cultural referents, which populate both ordinary conversations and political debates. TV series, by virtue of their aesthetic format (their duration, weekly and seasonal regularity, and the fact that they are, or were until recently, usually viewed in the context of the home), the attachment they inspire to their characters, the democratization and diversification of modes of viewing them (internet, streaming, discussion forums), make possible a specific form of education and constitution of a public. TV shows are hence a medium for political and ethical discussion. The article studies two series, Homeland and The Bureau, which are paradigmatic examples of a genre that has grown exponentially since the beginning of the century, and which we refer to as the “security series” genre. These series are great works of art and can also be seen as powerful tools for educating and informing the public.

Digital Transformation of Terrestrial Radio: An Analysis of Simulcasted Broadcasts in FM and DAB+ for a Smart and Successful Switchover

The process of digitizing radio is far from over. It is an important interdisciplinary aspect, involving Big Data and AI (Artificial Intelligence) when it comes to classifying and handling content, and an organizational challenge in the Industry 4.0 concept. There exist several methods for delivering audio signals, including terrestrial broadcasting and internet streaming. Among them, the DAB+ (digital audio broadcasting plus) system is one of the leading standards of terrestrial digital radio transmission. Compared with analog FM (frequency modulation) radio, it is more bandwidth efficient and offers greater possibilities when it comes to delivering content and forming an ensemble and multiplex. Currently, many countries worldwide, particularly European States, are still making adjustments in order to perform an efficient switchover from analog FM to digital DAB+ radio. This paper presents the current situation of the digital radio market as well as the results of a subjective quality evaluation study and questionnaire concerning broadcasting in both digital and analog techniques. It involves radio programs, transmitting both speech and music signals, simulcasted in DAB+ and FM standards. It also presents the development of the national multiplex. The results of this study may help both researchers and scientists as well as policy makers and professionals active in the field of broadcasting and electronic media and not to mention the consumption of multimedia content.

Holy War of Images: New Islamic Religious Cinema between Ramadan Series and Internet Streaming

More than thirty years after the first celebrated attempt to portray the Prophet Muhammad on the big screen (The Message, 1976), we have witnessed, from the new millennium onwards, a new wave of movies and tv series that focus on Islamic religious topics, in particular on the life of the Prophet. In this battle for hegemony in the visual representation of Islamic themes, the most active players are the Muslim Brotherhood Society, operating from their well-funded new base in Qatar, and Iranian Shi‘ism. Between movies and tv series designed and realized on the life of the Prophet, and the series created for the month of Ramadan on the life of prophets and prominent religious authorities of the past, the list is enriched every year with new titles. These are now able to find global diffusion and exert a global influence through various pay and free access streaming platforms. Some of these productions seem to match the needs of political propaganda of certain Islamic denominations, in some cases even winking at the action of certain radical movements.

TV auf Abruf

When asked about what they watch and how they do so, (young) people tend to give the same answer: streaming is in, traditional TV is out. While Netflix boasts millions of subscribers and YouTube videos are watched billions of times, viewers are forsaking established TV channels. In order to not get left behind, TV channels are investing in expanding their on-demand services. This book examines whether the attempts of public and private TV channels to branch out into internet streaming can keep pace with the shift towards video on demand and whether such on-demand services will eventually supersede linear television.

Corrected Evolutive Kendall’s τ Coefficients for Incomplete Rankings with Ties: Application to Case of Spotify Lists

Mathematical analysis of rankings is essential for a wide range of scientific, public, and industrial applications (e.g., group decision-making, organizational methods, R&D sponsorship, recommender systems, voter systems, sports competitions, grant proposals rankings, web searchers, Internet streaming-on-demand media providers, etc.). Recently, some methods for incomplete aggregate rankings (rankings in which not all the elements are ranked) with ties, based on the classic Kendall’s tau coefficient, have been presented. We are interested in ordinal rankings (that is, we can order the elements to be the first, the second, etc.) allowing ties between the elements (e.g., two elements may be in the first position). We extend a previous coefficient for comparing a series of complete rankings with ties to two new coefficients for comparing a series of incomplete rankings with ties. We make use of the newest definitions of Kendall’s tau extensions. We also offer a theoretical result to interpret these coefficients in terms of the type of interactions that the elements of two consecutive rankings may show (e.g., they preserve their positions, cross their positions, and they are tied in one ranking but untied in the other ranking, etc.). We give some small examples to illustrate all the newly presented parameters and coefficients. We also apply our coefficients to compare some series of Spotify charts, both Top 200 and Viral 50, showing the applicability and utility of the proposed measures.

Personality Traits and Motivation as Factors Associated with Symptoms of Problematic Binge-Watching

Advance in new technologies has created a new form of consuming television. Binge-watching can be highly entertaining behavior, but its excessive forms could lead to development of risk of addiction. The aim of the study was to identify psychological factors associated with symptoms of problematic binge-watching and to establish on what devices and platforms young people tend to binge-watch. The results of the study indicate that Polish university students usually binge-watch on laptops and smartphones by using the Internet—streaming platforms or other websites. Low Conscientiousness was the strongest variable related to symptoms of binge-watching from all the personality traits. Furthermore, results show that there is a significant relationship between low Agreeableness, low Emotional Stability, low Intellect and problematic binge-watching. Moreover, escape motivation was the strongest factor from all motivational variables.

Neural correlates of response inhibition and performance monitoring in binge watching

With the increasing popularity of internet streaming portals, the question why people develop binge-watching behavior has become a focus of scientific research and its addictive potential is discussed. The current study examined neural correlates of binge-watching during inhibition in a go/nogo task and performance monitoring using electroencephalography. Participants reported high binge-watching behavior (HBW, n = 35) or no binge-watching (NBW, n = 33) episode during the past four weeks. Compared to the NBW group, HBW showed larger P3 during response inhibition and larger error-related negativity (ERN) for errors in the flanker task. Group differences in behavioral measures were not observed. The current results suggest that binge watching may be related to both (1) increased neural recruitment during response inhibition as indicated by the increased P3 to facilitate normal inhibitory performance and (2) enhanced performance monitoring as indicated by the increased ERN. As this neurocognitive profile differs from observations in other addictive and excessive behaviors, implications for this budding field are discussed.