Violence on television. Unpleasant, interesting or morbid?

• Main Author: C Fernández Villanueva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de La Laguna 2013-10-01
• Series: Revista Latina de Comunicación Social
• Subjects: violence; television; discourse analysis; audience research.
• Online Access: http://www.revistalatinacs.org/068/paper/991_Somosaguas/25_Villanuevaen.html

Introduction: Many research studies have contributed to the study of the effects of violence on TV, but very few of them have paid attention to the reasons why violence arouses interest or rejection among viewers. The objective of this article is to analyse the discourses, arguments and moral criteria used by the audience to justify their interest or disinterest in TV violence. Methods: The study is based on 16 focus groups carried out in Madrid and segmented by sex, age and education level. Results: The study indicates that audience’s attitudes towards representations of violence on TV range from rejection to morbid interest, including intolerance, lack of interest and self-protection. These attitudes vary depending on whether the representations of violence are real or fictional. Conclusions: The results contradict the popular idea that TV audiences are generally attracted to the TV representations of violence and indicate that this “emotional interest” in violence is actually accompanied by an interest in learning about this phenomenon and developing ethical reflections.