Violence and Film: perception and understanding of youth

Abstract

The propose of this study is to know how the youth elaborate the representation of what happens in the movies and the violent conducts that develop in contexts of leisure and or entertainment. A few sequences or the movie Joves (2004) with different types of violence and also participants (man/woman), which according to the director, represent the behaviours of the young Catalan youth in certain situations. Three groups were formed of 8, 7 and 6 youngsters of both genders with ages ranging from 18 to 22 years old. One group watched the sequence made with male characters, another group watched the sequence made with female characters and the third group watched both sequences. After the projection all groups answer a questionnaire and then there is a focus group session. The qualitative analysis of the answers shows that the youngsters elaborate and position themselves above all the violence shown and its adaptation to reality, it means, to the filmed representation that coincide with reality, according to different standards.