“WTFock is going to happen next?” A Qualitative Content Analysis Of WTFock in the Scope of VIER’s Battle With Relevance In The Flemish TV Landscape

The year is 2019 and technology is at an all-time peak: self-driving cars, smart cities and TV has been replaced by the Internet. Or has it? In the mid-2000’s the post-network era commenced and preluded what could possibly become the most industry-altering era TV had seen since its appearance in the 1950s. More channels, more choices, no more ads and multiple screens. An era of choice and power to the consumers. But where do the broadcasters fit in this equation? These industry-altering occurrences eventually reached Flanders, with its surprisingly large media landscape. Media consumption habits changed and expectations were raised. In autumn of 2018, the commercial broadcaster VIER introduced WTFock to the Flemish youth as a secret, anonymous project, offering an unprecedented Flemish media production to its consumers. Given the timing and industry developments, the assumption was raised that VIER was attempting to regain and maintain relevancy amongst the Flemish youth, through its newest, internet-based web-series: WTFock. These aforementioned findings and state of the industry, led to the qualitative, content analysis of the following case: WTFock’s first season. This research served the purpose to determine how VIER was attempting to regain this relevancy that it had seemed to have lost. Being qualitative in nature, this research conducted and treated the audio-visual content of the first season according to the process of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. After carefully having analyzed all 95 short, audio-visual clips of the first season of the web-series, seven themes emerged: “Real-Time” Narration, Technology, Music, Intimacy, Relatable Topics and Settings, Polarizing Topics and Cultural Identity and Expression. These results reaffirmed existing academic knowledge on the matter and garnered new insights accordingly. Whilst adapting a pre-existing (i.e. outside of the Flemish TV landscape) format and seamlessly incorporating current technological developments, WTFock’s first season presents a truly Flemish product which raises relevant societal issues and addresses polarizing topics.