Both House of Cards and Scandal have similar conceits (White House? Check. Sex? Check. Murder? Check.) but use different platforms: House of Cards is a Netflix Original production while Scandal is a broadcast television program on ABC. Through the course of this paper, I will examine how the platform and type of consumption affects the content and distribution of the show and the types of relationships they forge with their viewers.

The evolving television industry relies heavily on the corresponding shift in the audiences that it addresses. New practice for consumption and production, particularly the “disruptive” force of streaming services like Netflix, have been evidenced not only in the methods of the companies themselves but also in the content they have begun to offer. A milestone in the television industry, Netflix’s first original series House of Cards provides an innovative and meaningful installment to the genre of political melodrama, which has its own cultural significance and heritage of mapping audience relations to the media. Analyzing the text, this paper reveals how industrial strategies relate to taste cultures and produce cynical political television drama.

Esta dissertação de mestrado versa sobre as diferentes formas com que a série televisiva americana House of Cards (Netflix, Beau Willimon, 2013-) interage e se comunica com seu público e sua época. Tendo como tema um inescrupuloso casal de políticos que escala os degraus do poder na capital dos Estados Unidos, a série trabalha na intersecção entre modalidades de manter a atenção do espectador, a produção de comentário político, e os imperativos comerciais da distribuição televisiva. Sendo o primeiro exemplar de um seriado distribuído por uma plataforma online de streaming, incentiva também questões quanto a inovação trazida pelo modo de exibição ao formato seriado. Dessa forma, o trabalho se inicia analisando o uso particular de apartes dramáticos pelo protagonista, que ao se dirigir diretamente aos espectadores os fisga para dentro da diegese e os estimula a continuar assistindo à série, enquanto co-conspiradores de suas tramas. O texto passa em seguida para uma interpretação do comentário político promovido pelo programa a partir de mecanismos melodramáticos, comentário que para ser efetivo necessita trazer para a diegese elementos extradiegéticos que assemelham a ficção ao mundo real e a familiarizam ao espectador. Ao mesmo tempo, internautas e jornalistas se apropriam dessa ficção para o comentário de sua época, demonstrando a reciprocidade entre mundos ficcionais e a realidade da qual comentam e aonde participam. Finalmente, é analisado a relação entre o formato seriado que estrutura o programa e a plataforma online de streaming que o distribui, indagando o quanto que modos de exibição que estimulam a fruição concentrada de produtos seriados inovam o conhecido formato, enquanto que o mesmo auxilia na promoção de novas formas de distribuição e exibição. / This Master\'s dissertation delves into the different ways with which the television series House of Cards (Netflix, Beau Willimon, 2013-) interacts and communicates with its audience and time. Having as theme an unscrupulous couple of politicians that climb the steps of power in the United States capital, the series works in the intersection between methods of keeping the spectator\'s attention, the production of a political commentary, and the commercial imperatives of television distribution. Being the first example of a series distributed by an online streaming platform, it also stimulates questions regarding the innovation brought to the serial form by this mode of exhibition. This way, this study starts by analyzing the particular use of dramatic asides by the protagonist, in which as he addresses directly to his audience he hooks them into the diegesis and stimulates them to continue watching the show, as co-conspirators to its schemes. It then moves on to an interpretation of the political commentary promoted by the show through melodramatic mechanisms, commentary that to be effective needs to bring into the story extradiegetic elements that resemble the fiction with the real world and familiarize the audience. At the same time, internet users and journalists appropriate this same fiction to comment on their own conjuncture, showing the reciprocity between fictional worlds and the reality that they comment on and which they participate in. Finally, it is analyzed the relationship between the serial form that structures the show and the online streaming platform that distributes it, inquiring on how much modes of exhibition that stimulate concentrated viewing of serial products innovate this known format, inasmuch as this format helps the promotion of new modes of distribution and exhibition.

This thesis, argues that House of Cards portrays an embellished reality of our government through a Machiavellian lens, particularly looking at the politics of scandal through the 25th Amendment and impeachment, as well as the role of political spouses. It also address the underlying question of appointing someone as controversial as Frank Underwood to the vice presidential position knowing his manipulative nature, and will analyze his schemes from a realistic perspective.

The choice of content and number of technologies that audiences view television with are increasingly expanding in the post-network era, leading those who use the medium to question its definition. In the wake of the Internet, online programming and streaming technologies, the death of television is frequently forecast.  Netflix’s 2013 release of their original online production House of Cards prompted popular media and trade journals alike to declare a revolution of television that would result in a paradigm shift of current production and viewing practices. House of Cards is esteemed for its distribution method and asserted advantages over traditional television by creators and executives surrounding the show, which calls for an examination of the specific practices that are dubbed ‘innovative’, as current television production practices have been put in place for years. The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the claims surrounding the series through production and textual analysis. Second-hand sources are used to gather evidentiary claims surrounding the production, and analyzed using historical poetics analysis with Jason Mittell’s complex television definitions in order to make comparisons of particular elements of the creation, production and distribution of House of Cards. Making these areas its starting point, this inquiry provokes larger questions of the future of online television programming in general, and its role in the death of television in particular.

This thesis examined the contemporary U.S. popular culture, specifically the Netflix series House of Cards, and the analysis was focused on the representation of the media reality portrayed in the first two seasons of the series. The credibility of given model situations or their exaggeration is examined based on thirteen research interviews with Czech and American journalists in March, April, and May 2020. The public trust in media, the influence of popular culture on mass society, specifics and ethics of investigative journalism, and broadly the representation of media in cinematography were presented in the first part. The analysis of the portrayal of journalists and media in the series and research interviews with experts followed. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the credibility of the portrayal of journalists. The secondary research question was focused on the public trust in media and the potential harm that the depiction in culture might cause. The views of Czech and American journalists on the portrayal of media in popular culture and the discussion about their diverse opinions are the primary asset of this thesis. The results prove that the perception of ethics and journalistic behaviour in given specific situations differ individually. Therefore, aspects such as...

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