Just one more: How journalists frame binge watching

Authors

  • Ri Pierce-Grove

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v22i1.7269

Abstract

“Binge watching” is a term associated with multiple practices of serial narrative consumption afforded by digital infrastructures. This paper tracks the normalization of the term “binge watching” in the press. I look at the archives of the New York Times, Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Daily News, New York Post, Slate, and the criticism of several prominent journalists from the 1980s to 2016 to trace the phrase and its evolving social relevance. I find that for journalists, the episode, not the hour is the fundamental unit of the “binge watch”. Journalists participated in the construction of “binge watching” as an all-consuming experience that takes place at the expense of daily life. At the same time, they contradicted this construction by using the term to represent practices of serial media consumption that fit seamlessly within existing patterns of work and leisure.

Author Biography

Ri Pierce-Grove

Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communications at Columbia University and a visiting fellow at the Information Society Project at the Yale Law School.

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Published

2016-12-20

How to Cite

Pierce-Grove, R. (2016). Just one more: How journalists frame binge watching. First Monday, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v22i1.7269