Conceptual integration of social representations, cultural studies, and media criminology for the analysis of violence in cinema

Abstract

The article integrates the theoretical-methodological perspectives of social representations, cultural studies, and media criminology. The line of social representations developed by Denise Jodelet, within which several contemporary authors are situated, constitutes a theoretical-methodological tool that emphasizes the relationship between social representations and cultural products. Within this framework, cinema is presented as a mediatic and artistic product in dialogue with its social context and its audience. In this way, the approach considers the contributions of cultural studies regarding cinema as art and industry, as well as the premises of Nicole Rafter's media criminology (popular criminology) concerning criminological themes in films, such as violence. 

The field of social representation of violence can be analyzed within the filmic image in a manner where narrative elements of time, location, and characters correlate with the cultural other, collective memory, and space. Similarly, the narrative instance connects with the processes of objectification and anchoring of social representations. This approach offers a novel conception in the development of cinematic studies from a transdisciplinary perspective and its social impact. 

Keywords: , media criminology, cultural studies, social representations, violence