Deshumanización y legitimación de los conflictos armados en los videojuegos bélicos

Alejandro González-Vázquez; Juan José Igartua Perosanz

doi:10.5294/pacla.2019.23.1.4

Authors

Alejandro González-Vázquez Author Universidad de Salamanca http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6485-031X
Juan José Igartua Perosanz Author Universidad de Salamanca http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9865-2714

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2019.23.1.4

Keywords:

Video games, content analysis, programme content, dehumanization, legitimacy

Abstract

Dehumanization and Legitimization of Armed Conflicts in War Video Games

Desumanização e legitimação dos conflitos armados nos videogames bélicos

This article collects predominant representation or representations of war in war video games. To this end, a content analysis is carried out on a sample of 62 video games, which was taken following the sampling criteria of volume of sales or number of downloads in Spain between 2005-2015. This analysis is based on three conceptual lines: a) conflict legitimizers; b) enemy dehumanizers; and c) player de-individualizers. Results show the prevalence of a defense-centered legitimizing discourse of the conflict with no territorial or resource motivations, the absence of civilians during the action of the game, a predominance of enemies with homogeneous appearance and behavior who lack distinctive features and are realistically represented, and some main characters with a default design, heroic background and unreal invulnerability. Relying on the cultivation theory, this descriptive work establishes an empirical basis for further studies on how regular users of this kind of leisure activity construct beliefs and attitudes.

Para citar este artículo / to reference this article / para citar este artigo

González-Vázquez, A. e Igartua, J. J. (2020). Deshumanización y legitimación de los conflictos armados en los videojuegos bélicos. Palabra Clave, 23(1), e2314. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2019.23.1.4

Recibido: 26/09/2019

Aceptado: 31/01/2019

Online: 13/12/2019

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Author Biographies

Alejandro González-Vázquez, Universidad de Salamanca

Licenciado en Psicología por la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid y máster en Psicología Social por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, doctorando en el Programa de Doctorado Formación en la Sociedad del Conocimiento de la Universidad de Salamanca. Miembro investigador del Observatorio de los Contenidos Audiovisuales

Juan José Igartua Perosanz, Universidad de Salamanca

Catedrático de Universidad (Full Professor) del área de Comunicación Audiovisual y Publicidad en la Universidad de Salamanca, donde dirige el Observatorio de los contenidos Audiovisuales
(OCA; http://www.ocausal.es/). Es miembro de la International Communication Association (ICA) y de la Sociedad Científica Española de Psicología Social (SCEPS) y ha sido director de la Sección Temática Estudios de Audiencia y Recepción de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación (AE-IC) entre 2008 y 2016.

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