University

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3597-1408

MARICA SPALLETTA is associate professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes at LINK Campus University, where she teaches “Media and Politics”, “Public Communication” and “Sociology of communication”. At the same university, she is Scientific Coordinator of Link LAB (Laboratory of Social Research) and a member of the teaching staff of the PhD programme in “Human Sciences for Innovation, Inclusion and Sustainability”. From 2020 to 2024, she was the Coordinator of the three-year degree programme in Political Science and International Relations.

In 2023, he was awarded the National Scientific Qualification for the positions of first-rank professor in the competitive area 14/C2.

PhD in "Cultures of Communication" (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan), was a research fellow at LUISS Guido Carli and a researcher at the University of Guglielmo Marconi. She has also carried out study periods abroad at the McLuhan Center in Culture & Technology (University of Toronto) and the Faculty of Journalism and Communication at the University of Bucharest.

Her research interests focus on the construction of agenda processes and the forms of media representation of reality; audience studies; the relationship between media and sport; journalism and institutional and social communication; the mechanisms of credibility construction and perception.

Over the past two decades she has participated in and directed various researches carried out in partnership with Universities/Bodies/Institutions. She is currently principal investigator of the European project GEMINI-Gender Equality Through Media Investigation and New training Insights (CERV-2022-GE). Previously, she was scientific unit leader in the 2015 PRIN project on Media and Terrorism. The Impact of Communication and Digital Networks on Perceived Insecurity, as well as a participant in the H2020 international research project DETECt-Detecting Transcultural Identity in European Popular Crime Narratives. She was also a delegate of the Catholic Union of the Italian Press in the Technical Table for the guarantee of pluralism and fairness of information on digital platforms, established at AgCOM.

She is the author of about 100 scientific publications, in band A journals and with publishers of relevant national and international prestige. Recent publications include: “On-screen leadership models and beyond-the-screen celebrification processes in the Italian teen drama Mare fuori” (Celebrity Studies, 2025); “‘Ragazzi fuori’. Il reinserimento sociale dei giovani detenuti, tra rappresentazione e realtà” (Welfare e Ergonomia, 2024); “Comunicazione istituzionale e prospettive di genere: Uno studio sul social posting delle Regioni italiane, fra regole e pratiche” (Mediascapes Journal, 2024); “Verso un attivismo diffuso. Processi di agenda ed effetti sui modelli giornalistici nel coverage della crisi di governo” (Problemi dell’informazione, 2023); “Unsuitable Jobs for Women. Women’s Behind-the-Scenes Employment and Female On-Screen Representation in Italian TV Crime Drama” (Comunicazioni sociali, 2023); “Audiences of popular European television crime drama: A nine-country study on consumption patterns, attitudes, and drivers of transcultural connection” (European Journal of Communication, 2023); “Setting the Aware Agenda of the Covid-19 Health Emergency: The Italian Public Authorities’ Social Media Coverage” (IGI Global, 2021).

Curriculum Vitae