Between fiction and reality. a netnographic study on female viewers of the tv series The handmaid’s tale

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5209/cgen.88328
Keywords: Audience, Tv Series, Fandom, Ideology, Netnography

Abstract

The essay studies the Italian fan page dedicated to the TV series The Handmade’s Tale, analyzing female users’ dynamics of usage. Female viewers’ interpretations have been retraced through a netnographic analysis, which has had as an object the online community’s conversations. In this public fan page users show at the same time sense of identification and conflictual spirit. Two emotional levels in online interactions are identified: the community is profoundly compact when the events refer to the fictional story; it then transforms into a space of conflict when it goes to the impact on reality of the metaphors arising from a political interpretation.

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Author Biographies

Antonia Cava, Universidad de Messina

Antonia Cava is an Associate Professor at University of Messina, Department of Cognitive, Psychological, Pedagogical Sciences and Cultural Studies, where she teaches Cultural Industry and Media Studies, Sociology of Communication and Theories and Techniques of radio-tv communication. She’s been a coordinator in different projects of research and she has collaborated with various public/private Bodies and public administrations. She has been teaching for high training courses, university masters and Phd courses about topics related to communication and media. In 2019 she was Manager of the Master in social action for minors and mafia of the University of Messina. She has been carrying out activity of research on tv audiences, cultural consumptions, media imaginary and processes of social inclusion/discrimination based on gender.
She is the author of more than 50 publications  for Italian and international publishers and for Italian and foreign peer-reviewed journals. Among her most recent publications are L’infanzia violata. Devianza reticolare e digitalizzazione della pedopornografia (Sociologia del Diritto 3/2020), Il gioco del killer. Culture mafiose e minori (Franco Angeli 2020), On the Outskirts of Digitalizazion. Public Administration and Citizens Outside and Inside the Net (Central European Political Science Review 22/2021).

Assunta Penna, University of Salerno

Assunta Penna is Ph.D student in Social Theory, Digital Innovation and Public Policies (University of Salerno). Among her main research interests there are: media languages, digitalization of public administrations; women and the media; Internet Studies. Her latest publications include: Active Learning and Self Determination for the Management of Differences in the Classroom (International Journal of Digital Literacy And Digital Competence, 2018); Comunicazione pubblica e Open government: istituzioni, tecnologie e cittadini connessi (Metis,XXVI,2, 2019); On life: adolescenti tra narrazioni e identità (Media Education, 12, 2021); On the Outskirts of Digitalization. Public Administration and Citizens Outside and Inside the Net (Central European Political Science Review 22, 2021).

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Published
2023-06-27
How to Cite
Cava A. y Penna A. (2023). Between fiction and reality. a netnographic study on female viewers of the tv series The handmaid’s tale. Comunicación y Género [Communication and Gender], 6(1), 59-66. https://doi.org/10.5209/cgen.88328
Issue
Vol. 6 No. 1 (2023)
Section
Artículos

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