Diffusion in Formula One Viewership
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/netflix-f1-espn-boost-tv-ratings-espn-rcna1237
This article, written in June of 2021, talks about the recent updates and changes in the audience of Formula One Racing. Specifically the addition of the North American market, all because “I saw it on Netflix”. Netflix premiered “Drive to Survive”, a documentary series about the racing championship, in 2019 and is now in talks to produce a 4th season. The docuseries follows drivers and their teams and showcases a brand new sport to a North Americans audience that had not yet been exposed to Formula One. The article then dives into how as “Drive to Survive” rose to popularity, race viewership also rose hand in hand, as a direct correlation with each other.
Connecting this back to our Networks curriculum, this is a clear representation of diffusion with social networks. And I can connect this article further with a first-hand account of example. The concept of diffusion from class, is once enough of a node’s neighbors being to use a new technology they will adopt said technology. In this case that new technology is watching Formula One. My own personal social network had initially one or two people watching “Drive to Survive”, they then began watching the races as a result. Their closest friends then were convinced to follow that same route, until this pattern had engulfed our entire network. For me, hearing one or two people talk about the Formula One was not that exciting, it was just something that a few select few were watching, but once more and more also caught onto the wave I was also convinced and eventually there was an entire cascade of my social network and everyone began watching. This is the trend that started across the United States and North America and explains the bump of interest that can mainly be described as a byproduct of the Netflix series “Drive to Survive”.