Women Behind the Scenes: A Data-Driven Approach to Analyse Female Labour in Italian Television

Authors

Marica Spalletta
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Valentina Re
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.21428/93b7ef64.d09926a5

Synopsis

The aim of this work is analysing women’s employment in key behind- the-scenes jobs in Italian TV crime dramas distributed from Fall 2015 to Summer 2022. This research has a two-fold objective: first, understanding female employment in the Italian television sector through the lens of crime dramas (micro-level); second, and more generally, setting an analysis model that can be replicated with respect to other genres, periods, countries or typology of datasets (macro-level). Since the sample analysis we conducted revealed data and trends consistent with analyses of larger datasets, we can argue that the original findings obtained may extend beyond the boundaries of the crime genre. Despite some positive trends, data about female employment in Italian television production show a more unbalanced scenario with stronger gender inequalities compared to both European averages for TV fiction and the Italian film sector. 

Author Biographies

Marica Spalletta, Link Campus University

Marica Spalletta is an associate professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communication Processes at LINK Campus University, where she teaches "Media e Politica", "Comunicazione pubblica" and "Sociologia della comunicazione". In the three-year period 2023-2025 she has been principal investigator of the European project GEMINI-Gender Equality Through Media Investigation and New training Insights (CERV-2022-GE). Among her most recent publications: "On-screen leadership models and beyond-the-screen celebrification processes in the Italian teen drama Mare fuori" (Celebrity Studies, 2025).

Valentina Re, Link Campus University

Valentina Carla Re is full professor of cinematography, photography and television at Link Campus University. Her research activities are characterized by an interdisciplinary approach and include the areas of literary and film theory, transmedia narratology between cinema and television, production studies and distribution studies, and the Italian and European audiovisual industry.  Among her most recent books are the following: Peripheral Locations in European TV Crime Series, Palgrave Macmillan / European Film and Media Studies, Cham, 2023 (con Kim Toft Hansen); Le belle donne ci piacciono. E come! "Cinema nuovo", cultura comunista e modelli di mascolinità (1952-1958), Diabasis, Parma, 2021 (con Elisa Mandelli); Aging girls. Identità femminile, sessualità e invecchiamento nella cultura mediale italiana, Milano, Meltemi, 2021 (con Paola De Rosa, Elisa Mandelli); Streaming media. Distribuzione, circolazione, accesso, Milano-Udine, Mimesis 2017.

Audiovisual Data: Data-Driven Perspectives for Media Studies. 13th Media Mutations International Conference

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Volume

Audiovisual Data: Data-Driven Perspectives for Media Studies. 13th Media Mutations International Conference

Pages

65-86

Published

July 10, 2023

Series

Conference Proceedings
Copyright (c) 2023 The Authors

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Spalletta, M., & Re, V. (2023). Women Behind the Scenes: A Data-Driven Approach to Analyse Female Labour in Italian Television. In G. Avezzù & M. Rocchi (Eds.), Audiovisual Data: Data-Driven Perspectives for Media Studies. 13th Media Mutations International Conference (pp. 65-86). Media Mutations Publishing. https://doi.org/10.21428/93b7ef64.d09926a5