Essay Sample on Ranking Movies & TV Shows: A New Business Opportunity

Introduction

Movie and television show rating websites have become the new source of information concerning movies and TV shows. Websites such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic offer potential viewers ease in comparing television series and movies. These websites operate by amassing both television series and movie critics' views on specific materials. The views are tabulated as either "fresh" or "rotten," in the case of Rotten Tomatoes. To develop a new business that will partake in the ranking of critical information on entertainment, already existing businesses will have to be analyzed. The analysis will focus on the ranking system as well as alternatives that can be endorsed by the company allowing it to have a competitive edge.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Planning Phase

Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes function by assigning scores to films corresponding to the evaluation percentage of film and show critics. For example, if a movie is criticized as being "fresh," it indicates the material's positive aspects outweigh the negative (Lee et al. 6). Nevertheless, this approach is essential as moviegoers rely on such information to make useful choices when selecting movies or TV shows. The entertainment industry is evolving rapidly, with more material being produced than the public can watch. By offering such information, it will be able to fulfil a waxing niche (Lee et al. 8). Therefore, for the business to be functional, it also has to develop a criticism strategy that will offer future users to make decisions. In the case of Rotten Tomatoes, the organization owned by Fandango takes up the criticism of approximately 3000 critics (Lee et al. 25). This forms there, "Approved Tomatometer Critics." They must meet the set requirements, such as objectivity, among others, which are placed by the company. However, it is essential to understand that the number of critics is to concur with the vast material present (Lee et al. 64). The strategy applied is simply the action of dividing and conquering the current industry to conform to most genres available.

When developing the business, it is vital to appreciate that there are various databases, all with unique strengths and weaknesses. Though it is possible to create custom databases to fit the business' niche, it would, however, increase complexity. Regardless, the business will have a relational database that will be managed with an RMDS (relational database management system). The strategy is selected for its simplicity and effective management of data. In the1970s, the flow of data being produced increased, thereby requiring a better system to manage the massive flow of data (Coronel, and Morris 72). The system operates by storing data sets as relations; these are tables that have rows and columns where all the values of a specific cell represent a specific dataset.

SQL is used to manage RMDS though there are different implementations. SQL is standardized, thereby offering some form of predictability as well as convenience. The system operates under a specific set of rules that were developed by E.F. Codd, the inventor of the database management system (Coronel, and Morris 73). The regulations are known as "Codd's 12 rules," which focuses on restricting internal structure protocols, ensuring searched data is reliably found and prevent structural modifications.

Some of the advantages of adopting this database system include high data handling capabilities. The system surpasses other systems in handling extensive structured data as well as providing ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) communications. SQL offers secure storage as well as retrieval of data by utilizing SQL queries (Coronel, and Morris 75). The combination allows rapid upscaling of the database without the need to modify the data that already exists: this is critical for the business to grow its rating capabilities for upcoming films and shows while tackling already featured material from the past.

Analysis of Alternatives

With the structure of the database already identified, the next strategy would be the analysis of alternative products to be offered by the company. The rating and reviewing of entertainment material have recently become popular, resulting in a flooded market. A flooded market reduces the number of opportunities the company can utilise to penetrate the market and become successful. Therefore, the company can offer alternative products to increase its probability of being successful.

As previously mentioned, RDMS relies on the relational model; therefore, its application is broad. Overall, it can be applied in any area where data, as well as historical data, are essential (Coronel, and Morris 247). Such areas include supply chain management, hospital data management, libraries, and schools. The company can develop tailored database management systems that conform to consumers' specific needs (Coronel, and Morris 169). The possible alternatives will then be ranked on market demand, for example, with more schools taking advantage of online learning, it can be useful in schools and their respective libraries. This approach has the highest rank as the education sector yet to be exploited.

Data Design

Database optimisation is a critical phase when improving the performance of a website. Developers typically normalise relational databases; this means they restructure it to help in the reduction of data redundancy while increasing data reliability. However, depending on the purpose of the database, normalizing may not provide the needed performance (Coronel, and Morris 189). Therefore, the next strategy is to denormalize the database. The business will initially start operations with the database normalized. The approach is intended to maintain integrity while allowing for updates. However, due to the complex structure of normalized databases, the retrieval performance will be slow. Reduced performance is due to a large number of query tables for the different datasets. Updating, on the other hand, will be faster as the data is sent to a specific location.

Denormalization refers to the deliberate storage of the same data in numerous places. The main drawback of this strategy is increased redundant data (Coronel, and Morris 229). Apart from increasing data retrieval speeds, it also simplifies and speeds up reporting. Applications are needed to provide analytical and statistical information on their operations (Coronel, and Morris 232). The gathering of live-data is time-consuming and can negatively impact the system's performance.

The reduced performance is negated by using hardcoded values. This strategy relies on a reference table where permanent records are stored. Though effective, it requires the creation of a check control. The primary function of the control will be to validate the coded values against the reference values. For each value added to the table, a new value will be generated. This approach is conducive for the business as it is applicable in systems that create and use many queries against numerous tables. Database denormalization is presented as the best alternative for increased performance; however, it has limitations (Coronel, and Morris 230). The first is increased space requirements; the high number of duplicates will require increased storage area. Secondly, additional documentation, as the rules will have changes and finally increased the probability of data irregularities.

RDMS has been selected as the system design, and database denormalization has been selected for a high performing database for the company. The reasoning for the strategy was to allow for simplified updating capabilities as well as increased retrieval speeds. However, this is at the cost of increased data anomalies, storage, and documentation for the database as it grows. The business strategy is to have a database that can have its capacity increased without affecting already existing data. RDMS achieves the company's expectation by taking advantage of relationships such as one-to-many. The relationship utilizes a primary key that is used to retrieve the stored data. The database allows relationships to increase accommodating other relationships, such as many to many, without affecting already existing data. This feature is critical for the company if it is to venture to other sectors.

Conclusion

The strategy also allows for the company to take up alternative opportunities as the database is reliable and versatile. The information presented has demonstrated the data management systems' features all of which can be tailored to meet the needs of the user. It can also be used to combine both the reviews and other ratings such as music ratings providing a holistic approach to the market.

Works Cited

Coronel, Carlos, and Steven Morris. Database Systems: Design, Implementation, & Management. Cengage Learning, 2017.

Lee, Young-Jin et al. "Do I Follow My Friends Or The Crowd? Information Cascades In Online Movie Ratings". Management Science, vol 61, no. 9, 2015, pp. 2241-2258. Institute For Operations Research And The Management Sciences (INFORMS), doi:10.1287/mnsc.2014.2082. Accessed 8 Feb 2020.