Media Violence and the Cathartic Effect

The study of televisual violence deals with two concepts: the real violence present in informative broadcasts, especially in the news, and the fictional violence present in movies, television movies or in TV series. The real violence present in the news is often justified by television producers through the necessity of a warning that should make the public defend themselves or avoid acts of violence. In reality this act of presenting violence in a spectacular, sensational manner is economically motivated. The competition between channels, the desire to attract audience and advertising determined the presence of violence in a spectacular dramatized manner that first of all speculates human sensitivity and, in order to do this, they recur to sophisticated ways that make the best of the artistic, narrative, linguistic and iconic resources of the televisual discourse.The catharsis effect mechanism is decoded through that, that in their daily life people are confronted with frustrating situations which can lead to acts of violence. The catharsis offers liberation from these frustrations through imaginary participation in acts of violence and aggression present on television.The ones who are most exposed to the negative effects of media violence are children who, according to psychologist Albert Bandura, do not have the capacity of realizing if something should be imitated or not because they do not have the knowledge and the values that should underlie their discernment. By watching the same film or television show a child will understand the message differently in comparison to an adult. Therefore watching a big number of acts of violence induces to the child or the teenager the idea that violence can be a normal way of living. The world is seen through Manichaeism; any confrontation has a positive and a negative character, a winner and a loser.