TV Reception via Social Media Analysis: The Case of Doc – Nelle tue mani

This chapter adopts a data-led approach to studying the reception practices and discourses on social media of a TV series: Doc – Nelle tue mani. The series is one of the more traditional flagship products of Italian public broadcaster Rai in recent years, and one of the most successful Italian medical dramas. The essay examines user interactions with the show on two social media platforms – Instagram and Youtube – focusing, in particular, on the prevalent themes in comments and discussions and the kinds of visual content and images remediated from Doc. Data regarding user interactions is scraped using a variety of digital tools and then subjected to quantitative and qualitative readings. The analysis indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected both the production and the storyline of the show, is a recurrent theme in user interactions on Instagram. It also indicates that the most popular remediated content on YouTube refers to the show’s music and to its stars, and first and foremost the lead actor Luca Argentero.