Storytelling with data: Will machines become better narrators than us?

The use of digital technology for storytelling is not limited to the medium itself. The creation of stories is also changing visibly through the use of artificial intelligence and big data. Netflix demonstrates, what data-driven narration can look like. Will (script-) authors soon become obsolete?

I remember the nineties like it was yesterday. As a young boy, I used to annoy my sister watching TV – the current episode „Friends“ was a hot topic. You had to be up-to-date with what was happening in and around the Central Perks Café. You had to tune in every night to not miss something.

The days of linear televisionare long gone. Children today hardly know what it means to watch only one episode of their favourite series a day or even have to wait a week after a cliffhanger. Today, my nephew is negotiating with his mother whether he can watch 2, 3 or 4 episodes of a children’s series on Netflix.

The binge-watching phenomenon shows us how video-on-demand services influence our habits. „Netflix and chill” has long since become a common term. The appeal of streaming services – to watch your favorite series anytime, anywhere and as long as you want to is just one of many manifestations of our on-demand society. What you need is what you get. Simple.

But what does the other side look like? Netflix understands the viewing habits of its audience and uses the generated masses of data on the one hand for funny tweets, on the other hand to make suggestions to users based on their preferences and to produce customized content that appeals to a broad audience – or to a group of people that are segmented sharper than a razorblade. Does Netflix use it to produce high culture? We don’t know. If the market demand is defined as a quality characteristic, Netflix’s own productions can certainly be classified as high quality. Apart from the economic success of the company, the in-house series are also popular with critics. Although Netflix has kept its audience figures mostly to themselves, its own productions have won 43 Emmy Awards since 2013 (out of 225 nominations). This is also in line with the craftsmanship of series such as „Stranger Things“ or „Orange is the new black“. Netflix knows what the audience wants and delivers it at the highest technical level.Now they even signed the Obamas as producers.

Unlike linear television, which can only segment its viewers by channel and time, Netflix and other streaming providers have the advantage of making appropriate recommendations to each individual user based on content seen in the past. Directly after registration for the service you will be asked which films and series you like, two clicks later the first recommendations will appear.

Data-based curating of content works not only for videos, but also for music (Spotify), interests (Facebook) or – banal – shopping (Amazon). Computers are great at recognizing patterns, clustering data and making predictions about who might like what in the near future.