This is a qualitative study that seeks to identify the significance attributed by adolescents to violence disseminated by the media, especially on television, and how this group interacts with this media. The study hopes to increase understanding on how the phenomenon of violence divulged by television is interpreted, incorporated, or not by adolescents in their day to day. Focus groups with seventh and eighth-grade students from the city of São Gonçalo, state of Rio de Janeiro, were interviewed in two public schools and two private schools. The study concludes that one of the public health challenges is to expand its activities in preventing violence given the important role media has in regard to how violence is perceived. The study identified, as a positive aspect of the media, its assistance in education and promoting child and adolescent health.
violence; mass media; adolescent; health promotion; perception