Deconstructing the horror. Film analysis to reduce the impact of seeing real violence

Abstract

Introduction: This work aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the film analysis of A Message to America, the first video of beheadings of ISIS, as a media literacy tool to reduce the anxiety, and the emotional and cognitive impact (unconscious and conscious reactions) that these videos of real violence provoke in young people. Methodology: For this, 80 volunteers were recruited from first-year communication students at the UPV/EHU and divided into two homogeneous groups of 40. Group A watched an educational video about the film analysis of A Message to America, group B did not. Later, all the participants watched another video of the ISIS’ decapitations, and their viewing was monitored to record their state of anxiety before and after the experiment (using the STAI/E questionnaire), and their physiological (HRV and EDA) and cognitive responses (using an ad hoc questionnaire). Discussion and results: The results show that exposure to the film analysis of A Message to America does not attenuate the anxiety or emotional impact that these videos of executions produce in students, but it does reduce their cognitive impact and improve their understanding and interpretation, while empirically testing the correspondence between the audiovisual resources of the video and the physiological reactions of the viewer. Conclusions: The experiment confirms the suitability of film analysis to educate the eye in the contemporary audiovisual context.