Internet wars: the platformed menace - marketing, platformization and radicalism on the reception of a blockbuster on YouTube

Author(s)

Thais Farias Lassali

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2024-01-30

Examining board members

Christiano Key Tambascia; Carolina Cantarino Rodrigues; Carolina Parreiras; Luiz Gustavo Freitas Rossi; Luis Felipe Kojima Hirano

• Advisor: Christiano Key Tambascia

Abstract

This thesis investigates the reception of a blockbuster from a major Hollywood franchise on the video sharing platform YouTube. After its release in December 2017, this film very quickly became considered controversial for allegedly dividing viewers' opinions. It generated a series of discussions and controversies between fans and critics on the several social networks. It almost seemed impossible to have fair and reasonable opinions about the movie, at least in online circles. Either it was the best episode ever made in that narrative universe, or it was a complete embarrassment to the saga. Starting from the idea that this media product is a blockbuster, this thesis deals with the influence of digital media on the popularization (and consequent platformization) of the critical exercise about cinema. At the same time, these digital platforms have become important agents in the collective understanding of the products of the Hollywood industry. Therefore, this thesis, on the one hand, shows the fundamental role of YouTube, a company owned by Google and Alphabet Inc., in negotiating meanings around the referred film. On the other hand, it points to the decisive participation of a group of actors associated with the American extreme right wing in creating the consensus that this was a controversial work. To achieve this, these groups used both advertising tactics and knowledge about the functioning of digital platforms and their algorithms. Something that became possible, on the one hand, thanks to the importance that the circulation (of information, texts and products) in the public sphere has for the success of blockbusters. On the other hand, due to the way in which such pieces of entertainment have used capturing users' attention as part of their advertising strategies, an inherent characteristic of the platforms (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/00862-6 - The inflexions of humanity: the otherness representation in the hollywoodian science fiction since the 1970s
• Grantee: Thais Farias Lassali
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate