ASHLEY ALLEYNE-MORRIS: “SERIES ARE A QUICK WAY TO BE INFORMED ABOUT SOCIAL ISSUES”

As protests against systemic police brutality and racial discrimination sweep across the United States and around the world, Parrot Analytics has found skyrocketing audience demand for Netflix’s “Dear White People” and “When They See Us”.

In detail, the demand in the United States for “Dear White People” grew 329% week over week, while “When They See Us” was up 147% compared to the previous week. The first title debuted on May 31, 2019, while the second one released its most recent season in August of last year.

What these numbers show is that the events of everyday life have a high impact on the choice of content. In fact, users frequently turn to shows related to trending topics not so much for entertainment but rather in search of obtaining more information about the matter.

“When these social issues happen, people immediately want to find out more, so they go to different types of books, movies or TV shows. Specifically with this ‘Black Lives Matters’ movement and everything that has happened with George Floyd, I think there has been a request of black people that non-black people kind of do their own homework. People actually want to do their own homework now, so they are consuming content that they feel will give them some idea of what the black experience is so they can better understand the current times,”  said Ashley Alleyne-Morris, Partner Insights Director at Parrot Analytics, in conversation with Señal News.

Alleyne-Morris considers that, in this context, shows become a much simpler and easier source of information, a quick way to be informed and in an engaging way. “When you are consuming that amount of information from newspapers articles, for instance, it is really dense and difficult. However, you are able to absorb those messages using TV services, for example,”  she assured.

Given this renewed peak of audience on both shows, which clearly evidences a huge appetite for this type of content, Alleyne-Morris believes production companies are going to take notice and start creating more content related to this social issue. “Platforms can either acquire or make more content that talks about these black experiences. There are a lot of black stories out there, especially those that talk about injustices. Given everything that is happening, they can definitely use and take advantage of this to produce more black stories,”  she commented.

Now racial discrimination and the coronavirus are central topics in everyday’s discussions, but once this is all over, the executive imagines a future where people will be in the need of feel-good shows. “There will be a lot of light-hearted content. Comedy and animation will definitely arise. Furthermore, with all of the social injustices that are currently happening, I think we will see a lot of information about all these social matters too,”  Alleyne-Morris concluded.

By Federico Marzullo