Abstract
In the digital media landscape, it is still more difficult for traditional broadcasters to attract young audiences. This chapter investigates the successful strategy of the Norwegian web teenage drama SKAM (Shame, 2015–2017), which became widely regarded as an example of best practice in the Nordic countries during the late 2010s. After outlining common ideas about how to use research as a tool for film and television screenwriting, the chapter analyses how SKAM used the NABC method to create characters and storylines based on substantial research into the life and thoughts of the series’ intended viewers. The chapter closes with a discussion of what can be learned from the research process of SKAM and whether this process is easily exportable to other countries and contexts.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Vilde Schanke Sundet and Katrine Bouschinger Christensen for their thoughts and input during the writing of this article, as well as all the great colleagues in the What Makes Danish TV Drama Series Travel? research project, headed by Anne Marit Waade.
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Redvall, E.N. (2018). Reaching Young Audiences Through Research: Using the NABC Method to Create the Norwegian Web Teenage Drama SKAM/Shame. In: Thornley, D. (eds) True Event Adaptation. Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97322-7_8
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