Urban violence and the role of media in the conception of elementary school teachers

Abstract

Communication promoted by the media, which has deep penetration in society's daily life, is extremely relevant in the construction of a person's conscience. Media's influence on school violence is stated through scenes of violence, ads that promote consumerism and programs that grant high-class social and economical standards. This paper aimed to identify the teachers' concept on the role of media regarding violence and, concerning the concept, compare teachers from private and public schools. They were submitted to a semi-structured interview focusing on violence, and their answers were then analyzed, where they presented categories to each different role that these teachers thought the media might play: informative, informative-preventive, iatrogenic, ambivalent and dealing with violence in a trivial way. There was a predominance of the iatrogenic and ambivalent roles, according to the point of view of both private and public school teachers.