Buonanno, Milly

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Milly Buonanno

Milly Buonanno (Italy, 1944) is Emeritus Professor at the University of Roma-La Sapienza (Italy) and a pioneer in the analysis of gender in media.

She is author and co-author of more than 50 books and over 100 scientific papers about media culture and media industries. Her work has been translated to English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. She is a part of the editorial committee of several journals and books in the field, and is an adjunct editor of Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies. She is co-editor of the SAGE Handbook of Television Studies (2014).

She has developed her academic career with a special interest in the areas of media theory, television studies, television narratives, television history and, especially, gender in media studies. Buonanno has analyzed gender identities in media communication and has published important books such as La donna nella stampa: giornaliste, lettrici e modelli di femminilità (1978) and Cultura di massa e identità femminile: l’immagine della donna in televisione (1983). These books study female journalists and the representation of women’s identities on television. She has also studied the progressive feminization of journalism in Italy as well as the feminine identity as represented in audiovisual fiction, especially through the figure of the anti-heroine.

Milly Buonanno was the coordinator of the European project “Eurofiction” (1996-2005), a project funded by the European Council and developed by numerous universities and institutions across Europe. Eurofiction studied television drama and its production and reception during a decade in several European countries. Buonanno is also the director of the Scuola di creazione e produzione fiction (School of fiction creation and production) in Milan (Italy).

She is a member of prestigious academic associations such as Associazione Italiana di Sociologia (AIS), International Sociological Association (ISA), International Communication ASsociation (ICA), International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) or Italian Council of Social Sciences (CSS). Her career has been recognized with rewards such as the Albert Bonnier Jr’s Guest Professorship (Section for Journalism, Media and Communication Studies), by the University of Stockholm.

Selected publications:

  • Buonanno, M. (1978). La donna nella stampa: giornaliste, lettrici e modelli di femminilità. Editori Riuniti.
  • Buonanno, M. & Statera, G. (1983). Cultura di massa e identità femminile: l’immagine della donna in televisione. ERI.
  • Buonanno, M. (2008a). Visibility without power: Women journalists in Italy. In R. Frolich & S.A. Lafky (Eds.), Women journalists in the Western world: What surveys tell us (pp. 67-82). Hampton Press.
  • Buonanno, M. (2008b). The age of television: Experiences and theories. Intellect Books.
  • Buonanno, M. (2017). Television antiheroines: Women behaving badly in crime and prison drama. Intellect Books.

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