Picturing Diversity: Netflix’s Inclusion Strategy and the Netflix Recommender Algorithm (NRA)

Abstract

This essay asks two related questions: what is unique about streaming services (and Netflix specifically), that generates a greater investment in the diversity of its content, and how does the technology associated with streaming, in particular algorithmic recommendation systems, facilitate an engagement with diversity and inclusion? To answer these questions the essay considers the relationship between Netflix’s Inclusion Strategy, its Recommender Algorithm, and the diversity of its content, exploring the complex set of relations that exist between the way Netflix recommends content to its audience and its (perceived) diversity.