The greatest victory of modern popular media is the absolute destruction of the physical barrier. In the era of “23” (W for Win), a teenager in rural Indiana has the same access to a Sundance indie film as a critic in Manhattan. Streaming services like Netflix, Max, and Disney+ have created a global library that would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
This win is characterized by diversity of niche. Popular media is no longer a monolith dictated by three broadcast networks. The success of Squid Game (South Korea), Lupin (France), and RRR (India) on global platforms proves that audiences are hungry for content that does not originate in Hollywood. Furthermore, the “peak TV” era has provided employment for a massive workforce of writers, directors, and actors, allowing for experimental storytelling (e.g., Beef, The Bear) that would never have survived the old pilot system.
Finally, no discussion of "23 12 21" is complete without acknowledging the globalization of entertainment content. Netflix reported that over 60% of its global subscribers watched non-English content in 2023.
By "23 12 21," the tide had turned. Netflix, which had spent years only offering originals, began aggressively re-licensing old favorites from Warner Bros. and Sony. Simultaneously, Disney began experimenting with selling its Marvel and Star Wars titles back to Netflix. For popular media scholars, this was a circular return to the cable bundle model—just delivered over IP.
By December 21, 2023, AI was no longer a novelty. It was a tool. While studios agreed they couldn't replace writers with ChatGPT, they could use AI for "storyboarding," "concept art," and generating background "filler" content. We saw the first wave of micro-shorts produced entirely by AI on platforms like Runway ML. This democratization of creation meant that entertainment content and popular media were no longer the sole domain of billion-dollar conglomerates. A single teenager with a prompt could now generate a 30-second cinematic trailer, blurring the lines between professional and amateur.
Does entertainment content cause behavior changes?
The most significant shift was TikTok’s evolution from a dance app into a search engine for entertainment content. Gen Z no longer Googled "What to watch." They searched #MovieReviews on TikTok. A clip from a 2005 rom-com could trend for a week, driving millions of new viewers to old library titles. This algorithmic curation defined the "23 12 21" media diet.
This is the backbone of any analysis. You must apply these theories to specific examples of entertainment content.