Under the Cover of Blackness: The Racialized Dimensions of Netflix’s Personalized Cover Art

This article explores the mechanisms that shape how race is represented in online TV interfaces by analyzing Netflix’s personalized cover art, an essential digital paratext designed to attract viewers through individualized images. Netflix has previously been accused of using its personalized cover art or thumbnails in racially biased ways, displaying either Black or white characters based on the presumed race of users. To further existing research on this digital feature, this article focuses not just on whether Black characters are represented, but also on how they are represented. Through an exploratory pilot study that involves the creation of different algorithmic identities with disparate viewing histories, I trace the distinct and divergent representational patterns generated by Netflix’s personalized thumbnails, and point to how aesthetic patterns, such as changes in color palette, composition, and facial expressions, subvert as well as reproduce stereotypical imagery, thereby providing new insights into the racialized dimensions of SVODs.