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Young Adults, Gender Issues and Serial DramasResearch-Action Approaches to Consumption, Patterns and Teaching in the European Mediascape

Edited by Marica Spalletta, Valentina Re and Kim Toft Hansen

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Published 31 March 2027

About this book

Investigates how serial dramas represent gender-related issues across national productions and international ones

  • Combines empirical research with action-oriented educational tools
  • Presents different national perspectives alongside cross-national comparative studies, highlighting the main socio-cultural differences and similarities
  • Draws on primary sources such as focus groups and surveys with high school students, and interviews with high school teachers
  • Focuses on the added value of an educational toolkit designed to assist teachers in using serial dramas for media literacy and education

This edited volume investigates the transformative role of serial dramas in shaping perceptions of gender-related issues among young European audiences. Grounded in the European project GEMINI–Gender Equality through Media Investigations and New training Insights (CERV-2022-GE), this book examines how popular series – from global hits to local productions – circulate gender norms, challenge stereotypes and influence everyday understandings of diversity.

Through comparative research across four European countries, it also highlights how young viewers engage with these narratives as tools for identity formation, negotiation and debate.

Finally, the volume bridges theory and practice by showing how serial drama can be used in educational contexts to foster media and gender literacy. Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from media studies, audience studies and cultural pedagogy, the book offers a timely insight into the cultural power of serial storytelling in the platform era and its role in shaping more inclusive imaginaries.

Table of contents

Introduction: Gender-Related Issues, Young Adults and the Role of Serial Drama in the European Mediascape
Marica Spalletta, Kim Toft Hansen and Valentina Re

Part I. Understanding Audiences

1. Between Normalisation and ‘Minimal Effects’: A Qualitative Approach to the Interplay between European Upper Secondary Students, Gender-Related Issues and Serial Dramas
Paola De Rosa, Louise Brix Jacobsen, Izzy Fox, Nicoleta Talpeș and Kim Toft Hansen

2. Different Social Realities, Similar Challenges in Four European Countries: Teachers’ Views on Gender and Seriality
Raluca-Nicoleta Radu, Paola De Rosa, Louise Brix Jacobsen, Izzy Fox and Kim Toft Hansen

3. From Screens to Selves: How Serial Dramas Shape Gendered Imaginaries among European Young Audiences
Marica Spalletta, Nicola Ferrigni and Paola De Rosa


Part II. Understanding Serial Dramas

4. Sex and Power: Character, Gender-Based Violence and Toxic Masculinity in Sex Education and Euphoria
Kim Toft Hansen, Maria Elena D’Amelio and Louise Brix Jacobsen

5. Streaming Adolescence: Gender and Seriality in SKAM Italia and Prisma
Valentina Re, Gianluigi Rossini and Arianna Vergari

6. Heteronormativity and Irish Coming of Age Serial Drama: Progressive Possibilities and Conservative Realities in Derry Girls and Normal People
Sarah Arnold and Izzy Fox

7. Gender Empowerment and Banal Gender-Bending: Towards Naturalised Gender Narratives in Rita and Zusa
Kim Toft Hansen and Louise Brix Jacobsen

8. Breaking with Tradition: Gender Archetypes in Breaking Bad and Wednesday
Mihai Coman and Anamaria Sasu

Part III. Teaching Gender Through Serial Drama

9. Serial Drama as a Common Third: Research-Action Approaches to Teaching Media and Gender Literacy
Kim Toft Hansen, Massimiliano Coviello, Silvia Fanti and Fabrizio Boldrini

10. Educational Tools Approaching Gender Issues in Serial Dramas: The GEMINI Toolkit and the Piloting Experience
Massimiliano Coviello, Arianna Vergari, Antonio Opromolla and Maria Rita Bracchini

Conclusion: Identifying Gender-Related Issues in Serial Drama through Young Adults
Kim Toft Hansen, Marica Spalletta, and Valentina Re

About the contributors

Marica Spalletta

Marica Spalletta is an associate professor in Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Link Campus University of Rome, Department of Human Sciences. Her research focuses on the mediatization of cultural products and agenda-setting processes, forms of media representation and audience perspectives, and the credibility issue. Over the last twenty years she has directed or investigated several national and international research projects in the field of media sociology, among which the European project GEMINI-Gender Equality Through Media Investigation and New training Insights (CERV-2022-GE). Among her publications: “Streaming Youth in the Platform Culture. A Four-Country Study on Serial Dramas’ Consumption, Algorithmic Mediation and Transnational Engagement” (2025); “On-screen leadership models and beyond-the-screen celebrification processes in the Italian teen drama Mare fuori” (2025); “Unsuitable Jobs for Women. Women’s Behind-the-Scenes Employment and Female On-Screen Representation in Italian TV Crime Drama” (2023); “Audiences of popular European television crime drama: A nine-country study on consumption patterns, attitudes, and drivers of transcultural connection” (2023).

Valentina Re

Valentina Re is a full professor at the Department of Literary, Linguistic and Comparative Studies at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, where she teaches Film History and Italian Cinema. Her research focuses on media and literary theory, production and distribution studies, film and television industry, streaming media, cultural diversity and gender equality. She is experienced in the implementation of complex research projects supported by national and international funding bodies, including the EU-funded projects DETECt (2018-2021) and GEMINI (2023-2025). From 2022 to 2025 she was the PI of the project The Atlas of Italian ‘Giallo’: Media History and Popular Culture (1954-2020), funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research. Her work has appeared in journals including The Italianist, Necsus, View, Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, Journal of European Popular Culture. Among her recent publications are the books Che cos’è Netflix (2026); Peripheral Locations in European TV Crime Series (2024, coauthored with K. T. Hansen); and Le belle donne ci piacciono. E come! “Cinema nuovo”, cultura comunista e modelli di mascolinità (1952-1958) (2021, co-authored with Elisa Mandelli).

Kim Toft Hansen

Kim Toft Hansen is associate professor in Media Studies at Aalborg University, Department of Culture and Communication, where he teaches media and communication studies at all levels. As a researcher, he has participated in several international projects, including the DETECt – Detecting Transcultural Identity in European Popular Crime Narratives (H2020, 2018-21), GEMINI – Gender Equality Through Media Investigation and New training Insights (CERV, 2023-25), and What Makes Danish TV Drama Series Travel? (DFF, 2014-18). Presently, he leads the project GAIYA – Generative AI in Education for Young Adults: A Gender-Inclusive Nordic-Baltic Perspective (Nordforsk, 2026-30). He has worked intensively with and published about serial drama for several years, including publications like Peripheral Locations in European TV Crime Series (with Valentina Re), European Television Crime Drama and Beyond (co-edited with Sue Turnbull and Steven Peacock), and Locating Nordic Noir: From Beck to The Bridge (2017, with Anne Marit Waade). His recent ventures have focussed on the role of generative AI in research and teaching, including the recent article “Media production studies for the digital age: AI-driven analyses of Jonas Risvig’s Danish young adult content” (2025).