Technology research

    With forty-five movies, 162 television shows, and 61,043,000 monthly subscribers in the United States; Netflix is the largest streaming subscriber service in the world. Netflix was started in 1997. Co-founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, Netflix started off as a DVD delivery service. Movies could be rented online and then delivered to your home for a price of just $2 to $4 dollars. The first movie streamed on Netflix was "Bettlejuice". At first, the service offered viewers only the option to rent one movie at a time and only once the old movie was returned. In 2010, their service caused Blockbuster (the largest video rental company in the US) to go out of business. From 2007 to 2008, Netflix began to introduce a streaming service where subscribers could watch movies on their personal devices and televisions. 

        Even with streaming companies such as Hulu, HBO, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ growing over the years, Netflix still has the most subscribers. The main obstacle Netflix currently has is streaming contracts with studios such as Disney. Before Disney+ most of the content from Disney's properties such as Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars was streaming on Netflix. As soon as one of their movies would come to DVD, Disney could show them on Netflix for a long period of time. When Disney+ came out most of their content was brought to the new streaming service. However, a few Disney movies stayed behind at Netflix because of their contracts with the company. One of the latest movies to move from Netflix to Disney+ is Marvel's Black Panther. Black Panther was one of the most popular Netflix movies during its time on the streaming service. Despite this big change, Netflix viewers could possibly see the return of this movie in 2026 thanks to the streaming contract between the two companies. A Disney executive recently said that if you are a fan of Disney movies, then you need to subscribe to both companies.

        Netflix creates their own content so that they can continue to stay competitive with other streaming services. The television show, "House of Cards", was their first original content production in 2013. Today they have 80 featured films and 700 new Television series a year. Some Netflix original movies, such as "The Irishmen", have become Oscar-nominated films. These originals have featured important and popular actors and actresses over the years. An example of this would be Adam Sandler who has a production company called Happy-Madison. Happy-Madison recently finished their four film, $275 million dollar contract with Netflix to create new content. I personally feel with Covid-19 Netflix's streaming views have increased due to the amount of time spent inside.

https://interestingengineering.com/the-fascinating-history-of-netflix

https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/11/03/role-reversal-disney-will-lose-titles-to-netflix.aspx

Progressive Era

        War in America has changed us deeply. When you turn on the news or open a computer you consistently see news of America being engaged in wars around the world. We have friends and family who join the army and fight for our country. Newspapers and media profit from the conflicts across the country because it creates fear, which the news tends to do these days. The websites Antiwar.com and AmericanConservative.com both offer strong antiwar articles and opinions. Why does mainstream media not cover this? Traditionally, the government had greater control over the media. With the advent of cable news networks and the internet, news went from once or twice a day to a constant twenty-four hour news cycle. Competition for viewership has never been so fierce. The first amendment gives all Americans freedom of speech but the media controls what we see. Media outlets make a tremendous profit from war coverage. According to this article, "The Fox News Channel (FNC) jumped from its usual one million-plus audience to five and a half million. CNN spiked to 3.3 million, while MSNBC more than doubled its audience to two million viewers." With an increase in viewership in war, comes an incentive to promote the conflicts not just with cable news outlets, but with all media.

Six Freedoms

        In the article, "Black Lives Matter", the author explains why people disagree with police wearing riot gear and having military weapons during riots. I personally feel for both sides of this argument. The first amendment clause states that American people have the right to assemble peacefully. I do not think the police should have riot gear on because people in our country have the right to join together to protest. It is important for all people to be able to express themselves and show their voices. I also understand the other side argument that police should be able to protect themselves and the neighborhoods where the protests are taking place. As long as riots are peaceful, then police should not have to wear gear. The first amendment clause number five says that you can protest peacefully. So, as long as American's use their right to speak freely, but do so in a peaceful way, then they are following the law. According to the amendment clauses, all citizens have the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. My opinion is that people should be safe protesters and if not police have the right to interfere in order to protect property, law abiding citizens, and peaceful protesters.

Freedom of Speech

There is a current news story in the world of sports that seems to stop the momentum of professional sports returning this summer. NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets protest not to play in the NBA tournament due to the recent racial events that are going on in our country.  Despite being inactive due to injuries for a long time, Irving still has claimed that he will not "play" alongside his team. The 2022 team NBA tournament which will have no fans in attendance. The reason why his freedom of speech upsets me is because as a basketball fan I want to see the sport being played. There are several other players who actually want to play today for the same reason why Irving does not want to play. LeBron James, one of his former teammates, is planning to play out of motivation of the same recent events. A few nights ago, Irving had a conference call with over 90 NBA players who have the same ideas he has. In the United States of America, every individual has the right to freedom of speech and I respect Kyrie for speaking his mind. My viewpoint is that I wish more players would take action on the court, instead of addressing issues on the sidelines and through social media.

https://www.boston.com/sports/nba/2020/06/13/kyrie-irving-nba-restart-racial-justice-plan

The Last Dance

        For the last two months professional sports has been canceled. Since this change during Covid, sports networks such as ESPN have been trying to find new ways to bring content to their audience with no sports games going on. ESPN recently launched their newest Michael Jordan documentary, "The Last Dance". It was a huge success. They released it in advance because sports fans were craving something to watch and they needed to keep ratings up. ESPN also produced a documentary, "Lance", about Lance Armstrong, in advance as well. As for Sports center, they have been working virtually on past games and debates. There are a lot of debates that spark social media coverage. Media has been covering such a topics as "who the greatest players are" and the "best all time games". With no professional sports American sports media has still found ways to offer content to sports fans. 

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bulls/espn-hinting-early-release-last-dance-documentary-1998-bulls

About me

Hello everyone my name is JP Grace. I am a rising sophomore at High Point University where I run on the Cross Country and Track & Field teams. When I am not running, I enjoy playing as much basketball as possible and am an avid sports fan. My favorite sports to watch are basketball (Knicks) and football (Giants).  I also love skiing, tennis, hiking and volleyball.