Book Review: Netflix Recommends: Algorithms, Film Choice, and the History of Taste

Abstract

The digital age has initiated many changes in the
sphere of media and the way entire society functions, and
the two, probably, most specific changes are datafication
and algorithmic utilitarianization of those huge databases.
In the light of this fact, the book Netflix Recommends:
Algorithms, Film Choice, and the History of Taste by
Mattias Frey presents a very interesting and deep analysis
of the modern trend of creating and directing the taste
through recommendation systems of streaming services. In
this book, the author, professor of Film, Media, and Culture
at the University of Kent, analyzes and explains, using
Netflix as an example, the connection between collected
data, algorithmic processing, and recommendations to
users that arise as a result of this automated procedure, but
also questions necessity, effectiveness and consequences
of recommending systems for media use. Those questions,
apart from the introduction, afterword and appendix, are
discussed in five chapters