The Egyptian Audience's Dependency on Historical Netflix Shows as a Source of Information: A Field Study

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Radio and Television, Faculty of Mass Communication, Modern University for Technology and Information, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

This study seeks to examine the Egyptian audience's dependency on historical Netflix shows as a source of information, and identify the audience's level of trust in the credibility of the content of these shows, their extent of exposure, the motives for watching them, the benefits achieved after watching, and the role of those shows in forming the audience's attitudes towards the presented historic events and characters.
The fundamentals of the study depend on the survey methodology and the use of a questionnaire form as a data-gathering tool. The study uses a purposive sample of 400 respondents of Egyptian Netflix users who watch its historical shows.
Major findings of the study conclude that the respondents watch historical Netflix shows occasionally (61%), and they prefer watching historic events in the format of docudrama (56.5%).
Historic events emerged as the most prominent element of attraction for the Egyptian audience in historical Netflix shows (97%), and the principal motive of watching was (Because it helps me to form my mental image of the presented historical characters) (16.28%).
The study, also, concludes that the respondents depend on historical Netflix shows as a source of information to some extent (55.2%), although they do not trust in the credibility of their content (55%), and they believe that those shows form a positive attitude towards the presented historic events and characters and highlight their significance and motivate the audience to watch (59%) and encourage the audience to search more for historic events after watching (31.6%).
Finally, the study concludes that there is a statistically significant correlation between the Egyptian audience's extent of exposure to historical Netflix shows and their dependency on them as a source of information, between the Egyptian audience's preference of watching historic events in a specific show format on Netflix and their level of trust in the credibility of the content of these shows, and there are statistically significant differences among the respondents relative to their viewership rate of historical Netflix shows per day according to their demographics (sex-age- educational level - economic level).

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References

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