MEDIA AND PSYCHOLOGY: A LITERATURE REVIEW

ABSTRACT

The present research aimed to carry out a literature review in order to identify the production on media developed by the field of Psychology in Brazil. Therefore, surveys were made in national databases, using two combinations of descriptors: media and psychology; communication and psychology. Through the survey it was possible to verify the meager production on the subject. Through the analysis of articles, authors and institutions that stand out in the production of knowledge on the subject were identified. It was also possible to verify that the media appears in the articles both as an object of study and as an instrument for collecting information. The analysis showed that interest of Psychology in researching the media has increased over the past decade. In recent years, the digital medium has gained prominence among research. Finally, it is hoped that this research, in addition to presenting an overview of the academic production of Brazilian Psychology on media, can point out the gaps, indicating new and urgent research possibilities on the interface between media and Psychology.

Keywords:
Media; psychology; communication

RESUMO

A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo realizar uma revisão de literatura a fim de identificar a produção sobre mídia desenvolvida pela área da psicologia no Brasil. Para tanto, foram feitos levantamentos em bases de dados nacionais, utilizando duas combinações de descritores: mídia e psicologia; comunicação e psicologia. Com os dados obtidos foi possível verificar a exígua produção sobre o tema. Por meio da análise dos artigos foram identificados autores e instituições que se destacam na produção do conhecimento sobre o assunto. Também, verificou-se que a mídia aparece nos artigos tanto como objeto de estudo, quanto como instrumento para coleta de informações. A análise apontou que o interesse pela psicologia em pesquisar a mídia aumentou na última década. Nos últimos anos, o meio digital vem ganhando destaque entre as pesquisas. Por fim, espera-se que esta pesquisa, além de apresentar um panorama da produção acadêmica da psicologia brasileira sobre mídia, possa apontar as lacunas, indicando novas e urgentes possibilidades de investigação sobre a interface mídia e psicologia.

Palavras-chave:
Mídia; psicologia; comunicação

RESUMEN

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo realizar una revisión de la literatura para car la producción sobre medios de comunicación desarrollados por el área de Psicología en Brasil. Para eso, se hicieron encuestas de bases de datos nacionales, utilizando dos combinaciones de descriptores: medios de comunicación y psicología; comunicación y psicología. A través de la encuesta fue posible verificar la pequeña producción sobre el tema. A través del análisis de los artículos, se identificaron autores e instituciones que se destacan en la producción de conocimiento sobre el tema. También fue posible verificar que los medios de comunicación aparecen en los artículos tanto como objeto de estudio, como instrumento para recopilar información. El análisis encontró que el interés de la Psicología en investigar los medios de comunicación ha aumentado en la última década. En los últimos años, el medio digital ha ganado importancia entre las investigaciones. Por fin, se espera que esta investigación además de presentar una visión general de la producción académica de la psicología brasilenã en los medios de comunicación, pueda señalar las brechas, indicando nuevas y urgentes posibilidades de investigación sobre en la interfaz de medios y Psicología.

Palabras clave:
Medios de comunicación; psicologia; comunicación

Introduction

The relationship between media and Psychology has proved to be increasingly intense in contemporaneity. The rise of the digital medium in daily life indicates the construction of new ways of relationship and interaction (Digital 2020 Brazil, 2020). The media, thus, presents itself as an important space that participates directly or indirectly in processes of formation of subjectivities.

With the intent of understanding the ways how Psychology has approached media-related discussions in academia, the present research aimed to carry out a literature review to identify the production on media developed by the field of Psychology in Brazil.

Initially, it is possible to advance that the academic production about this interface is exiguous. However, it is worth highlighting that the concern with the theme exists. This can be confirmed, for example, by actions developed both by the Federal Council of Psychology (CFP) and by some Regional Councils (CRPs) in this profession. Thus, it is possible to cite the publication ‘Mídia e psicologia: produção de subjetividade e coletividade’, fruit of the Seminário Internacional Mídia e Psicologia: Produção de Subjetividade e Coletividade that happened in 2007 in Rio de Janeiro. This work comes to show the political engagement of such institutions in discussions for the democratization of communications.

The referred publication brings to the center of its discussions, the concern regarding the importance of thinking the media from the perspective of Psychology. Such a fact is evident when one bears in mind that the construction of subjectivity is a central object in Psychology. In this sense, Bock (2009, p. 19) states that

This relationship between subjectivity and media exists, and Psychologists, professionals of the subjectivity, have studied it, but little. For many years Psychology has contributed to the field of communication. However, the critical reading of this relationship, the possibility of widening society’s understanding of this relationship, and the contribution to an education that deal with the relationship with the media are questions that have been little debated, in spite of their being studied in some spaces of our profession.

Complementing this view, it is then possible to think of the media as a mediation instrument that at once participates in the formation of subjects and portrays a cultural and social context constructed and transformed by those subjects. Meanings disseminated by the media are appropriated by the subjects and transformed into mediation in the constitution of these. In this perspective, the media is considered a factor that contributes to the construction of subjectivities (Miguel, 2012)

From another angle, the intrinsic relationship between media and Psychology could be verified, too, by research carried out through the partnership between the Santa Catarina Regional Council of Psychology (CRP/12) and NUGEMS (Center of studies of actions in gender, education, media, and subjectivity⁸) between 2016 and 2018. The research proposed to understand how Psychology professionals interacted with the media, both as a source of information and as work object and tool. Some results evidenced how much the use of the digital medium, very frequent for leisure and as a source of information, was lower for professional purposes. Such a fact was also found in studies carried out by the researchers Hallberg and Lisboa (2016).

This scenario, however, has changed in recent years. We have watched, today, a significant increase in the use of social media as a means of disseminating psychological content, as well as for the self-promotion of professionals of the area. By ‘surfing’ through social media such as Facebook and Instagram, it is possible to encounter several accounts of Psychology professionals presenting their services. Moreover, the regulation for delivering online psychotherapeutic care has been a target of discussion by CFP, especially in recent months, due to the arrival of the pandemic triggered by COVID-19.

The scenario, thus, makes evident the importance of Psychology turning to studies about the media. Furthermore, it should think the media not only as a mediation instrument, but also as a possible tool of work and of dissemination of the scientific knowledge produced by Psychology in contemporaneity.

In light of these considerations, the possible dialogues between Psychology and studies on the media are evident. Thus, it is hoped that the present literature review can present an overview on how the media has been studied by professionals in the field of Psychology. Such an overview, in addition to portraying the current scenario, can serve to point out weaknesses and new possibilities of investigation about the interface between media and Psychology.

Method

To verify the national academic production on media by the field of Psychology, we carried out surveys in the following databases: SCIELO/Br, Virtual Health Library (BVS-Psi), PsycINFO, SCOPUS, and PEPSIC⁹. We stress that the study here presented comprehends an integrative review, method which “[…] allows the synthesis of multiple studies published and enables general conclusions regarding a particular area of study” (Mendes, Silveira, & Galvão, 2008, p. 759).

For carrying out those investigations, we used the following combinations of descriptors: ‘psychology and media’, and ‘psychology and communication’. We opted for using a combination with the word ‘communication’ in order to capture possible references that might escape the combination ‘psychology and media’. Thus, those that had the word communication associated with means of communication and/or media were considered for the analysis corpus¹⁰.

In all databases analyzed we examined the entire collection until the year 2019, more specifically until the date when surveys were carried out (June 10 and 11, 2019). Thus, the research comprised all references indexed in these databases. It is highlighted that in the international databases consulted, only works in Portuguese language were considered. It is worth stressing that all stages of this review were divided between the authors of the present text.

On the basis of the surveys carried out, all references found for the combinations of descriptors were recorded and computed, while reference title, type of publication, author, institution to which the author was affiliated, year of publication, and periodical were highlighted. It is important to stress that in this process of search with different descriptors, there was a repetition of references. In this case, after initial examination, the repetitions were discarded from the final count. That is, each study was counted only once.

After we had mapped references found, it was possible to carry out a first analysis of the studies' abstracts, as well as of the complete texts when they were available. Via this first analysis, we verified the themes studied. After the survey of themes, these were grouped into large theme categories. Thus, a deeper reading of each study allowed placing each reference in its respective category. We stress that by analyzing the abstracts, it was possible to verify that not all references were directly related to the theme in question. These studies were discarded from collection, as will be explained in the next section.

Results and discussion

In order to provide an overview of the production of articles that have the media as a target of study in Psychology, we will present the relationship between the incidence of research about this theme and total number of texts found from the descriptor ‘psychology’.

When inserting solely the word ‘psychology’ into the Scielo Brasil database a total of 8,896 references were found. For the combination ‘psychology and media’ we found 66 references, and for ‘psychology and communication’, 326. In the PEPSIC database, the numbers were as follows: 7,397 for ‘psychology’, 57 for ‘psychology and media’, and 230 references for ‘psychology and communication’. The survey carried out in the PsycINFO database presented 3,564 under the descriptor ‘psychology’. By using the combination ‘psychology and media’, 394 references were found, and with ‘psychology and communication’, 985. In consulting the BVS database, 10,860 references were found for ‘psychology’. ‘Psychology and media’ totaled 22, while ‘psychology and communication’, 40 references. Finally, the research on the Scopus database brought the following numbers: 5,306 for ‘psychology’, 8 for ‘psychology and media’, and 10 references for ‘psychology and communication’.

The numbers found lead to some considerations. The first of them points out the exiguous academic production about media by Psychology when compared to the range of articles produced in Psychology. Adding up the works found with the two combinations of descriptors ‘psychology and media’ and ‘psychology and communication’, one can say that the references about these themes represent 6% of studies developed by Psychology.

However, this number becomes even lower when the proportion is analyzed on the basis of references that really had the media as a central subject. That is to say, of the 2,138 references found in the databases with the two combinations of descriptors, not all treated of studies on the interface between media and psychology, as said in the section concerning the method. Many of them only cited in their abstracts the word media and/or communication. In making a first analysis of references, only 367 of the 2,138 found really concerned studies about the media by Psychology. Thus, by remaking the proportion from these 367 references, only 1.01% of works carried out in Psychology were about the media.

As for the two descriptors combinations used, it is worth analyzing the numbers found. By using ‘psychology and media’, in total, 547 references were found. With ‘psychology and communication’, 1591. However, a first analysis indicated that, although the combination using the word ‘communication’ had brought almost three times more works when compared to the other combination, it gathered many articles that did not concern studies carried out by Psychology about media and/or communication. Thus, only 175 references of 1591 were classified to comprise the analysis corpus of this research, that is, 10% of studies found in this combination were used. On the other hand, although the descriptor ‘psychology and media’ had captured a lower number of references, 35% of the works found had a relation to the theme in question, totaling 192 of the 547 references found.

The explanation is in the fact that, for the most part, when the word ‘communication’ appeared in abstracts it referred to communication processes and not to themes related to means of communication and/or the media. However, it is worth stressing that though it had captured a large number of references that did not fit, the use of the combination ‘psychology and communication’ is considered to have been important, since it aggregated important information and afforded to complement the panorama of productions about the media in Psychology.

In total values, hence, the research indicated that of the 2,138 references found from the two combinations of descriptors, 367 concerned studies about media developed in Psychology. By eliminating repetitions,¹¹ a total of 313 references remained. Having arrived at this number, one more question was observed: even though all these 313 comprised studies on media carried out in Psychology, not all had the media as a main subject. In light of this, one more classification was established: studies that had the media as a main subject and studies that had the media as a secondary subject. These encompass references that address the interface between media and Psychology, but do it superficially, and referring to the media only as an element to explain a study aimed at other themes. In this classification, of 313 references, 246 were classified as having the media as a main subject. That being so, all reflections that will come below will be based on these 246 references.

All 246 references analyzed are articles published in Brazilian scientific periodicals and written in the Portuguese language. As for the year of publication, records since the decade 1990 were found. We can observe an increase in publications from the years 2000 and, in particular, as of 2011, peaking in the year 2018.

Through the abstracts, we could identify researchers with more publications about media in the field of Psychology. Among them were Adriane Roso, Inês Henningen, Neuza M. F. Guareschi, Moisés Romanini, and Mary Jane P. Spink. The first four are researchers from the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The first is a professor at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), and the other three, at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). All are part of the same group of researchers tied to Social Psychology. Even though his name does not show among the most frequent authors, Pedrinho A. Guareschi was Adriane and Moisés' advisor and is also part of the same group of researchers. Mary Jane P. Spink, in turn, is a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP).

This information brings the UFRGS' Social Psychology to the fore in the production of research about the media, but other universities also deserve to be highlighted. It is worth explaining that we arrived at universities through the affiliation of authors of articles that comprised the sample analyzed. That being so, the following institutions stood out: University of São Paulo (USP), PUC-RS, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), PUC-SP, and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

From the reading of abstracts, and in some cases of texts, of the 246 references that comprised the analysis corpus, it was possible to perceive that the media was addressed predominantly in the following two ways: as a theme of study or as an instrument for study. By ‘media as a theme of study’ we understand the articles that center their reflections on the media, in these articles the media was the main star, it was around it that the discussion revolved. As an example, we can cite the article, ‘O futuro: a psicologia e a web’, by Garção and Aldrighi (1999), where the authors discuss about how the web transforms relationships, and what Psychologists can do in face of this reality.

The classification ‘media as an instrument’ alludes to articles that have the media as a vehicle, as an instrument for carrying out studies. Roso, Strey, Guareschi and Bueno’s text (2002), titled ‘Cultura e ideologia: a mídia revelando estereótipos raciais de gênero’, serves as an example, because it uses advertisements as instruments to access the information it desires on racial and gender questions.

In the sample analyzed, studies that have the media as a theme of study predominated, but the difference was small: 55% of references fit this classification, the other, ‘media as an instrument’.

Classification of references as to thematic categories

In the analysis of 246 references that comprised the sample, we identified eight thematic categories. These categories will be presented below, and some studies belonging to each of one them will be highlighted. First though, it is worth emphasizing that some references fit more than one category. Thus, in the text that follows we opted to place the articles in categories to which they were identified to be closer.

What the media says about

This category encompasses research that has the media as an instrument and information source concerning a certain theme. In this category are included, too, studies that approach how the media portrays a given subject.

With 79 articles, this is the category that gathered the largest number of references. Most of them use the media as an instrument for answering to a given question. Diverse themes are addressed: gender and sexuality; health; body; politics; violence; drugs; childhood and adolescence; paternity and maternity; risk and adventure; Brazil; education; work and entrepreneurship; race; elder; environment.

Gender and sexuality was the most present subject between articles comprising the category in question, with 16 studies. Among these, we can cite the article ‘Mídia e lesbianidade: uma análise sobre posicionamentos na telenovela Senhora do Destino’ (Borges, 2011), which takes as a theme the television representation of lesbian women. Another example is the study ‘A legalização do abortamento no discurso do jornal Folha de São Paulo (2011-2014)’ (Mikael-Silva & Martins, 2016), which deals with the media treatment of the complex discussion of legalization of abortion, pointing out a multiplicity of discourses involving the theme: religious, feminist, sanitary, and political.

The second most frequent subject between these 79 articles encompasses questions related to ‘health’. Among the 13 publications, we found articles about HIV/AIDS: ‘Representações sociais e ciências aplicadas: o caso da prevenção do HIV’ (Camargo, Bousfield, & Wachelke, 2011), as well as about ADHD: ‘Representações da mídia escrita/digital para o transtorno de déficit de atenção com hiperatividade no Brasil (2010 a 2014)’ (Brzozowski & Caponi, 2017). Furthermore, we highlight articles that sought to elucidate the media coverage of public health services in Brazil, particularly with a bias of exposure of their structural problems, as in the study, ‘Crise dos serviços de saúde no cotidiano da mídia impressa’ (Menegon, 2008).

Subsequently, we have the theme ‘body’ gathering 8 articles. Most of these address questions related to standards of beauty and their media representations. The article ‘O discurso cirurgia estética na mídia especializada e o projeto do corpo feminino perfeito’ (Cabeda & Guareschi, 2004), reflects on the trivialization of cosmetic surgery by the incessant search - driven by the media - of a female body considered to be ‘perfect’.

As to the other themes approached, they gathered between one and six references each. The theme ‘elder’, for example, has two sensitive articles. In ‘Meios de comunicação impressos, representações sociais e violência contra idosos’ (Saraiva & Coutinho, 2012), the authors deal with how violence and maltreatment cases against the elderly are conveyed by the media. The second article raises the taboo subject of suicide among elderly people in the elucidating, ‘Suicídio de idosos e mídia: o que dizem as notícias?’ (Côrte, Khoury, & Mussi, 2014).

Education and technology

Comprising a 41-article compilation, this is the second category in terms of number of references. The studies here grouped approach, in different manners, the relationship between education and technology.

Most part of the studies that comprised this category, brought discussions about the use of the media as a resource for education. There is not, in this set of 21 articles, a predominant common theme, neither a predominant media type and magazines, games (physical and electronic), radio, films, music are found as some of the vehicles approached in the studies. In spite of this, the studies grouped are similar in the way they present and use different media. They approach them as a resource for learning, both in formal and informal contexts. To exemplify we cite the work ‘Sexualidade na sala de aula: tecendo aprendizagens a partir de um artefato pedagógico’ (Silva & Ribeiro, 2011), in which the authors present the section ‘Sex’ of Capricho magazine as a pedagogical artifact in the classroom, a facilitator for other manners of approaching the theme of sexuality beyond those comprehended in the school curriculum.

Between the articles that comprise this sample, the themes distance education (DE) and teaching practice in face of technology are also present (15 references). Of the works that discuss DE, it is possible to bring the article, ‘A percepção do outro no ambiente virtual de aprendizagem: presença social e suas implicações para a Educação a Distância’ (Coelho & Tedesco, 2017). This study explores the ways how interpersonal interactions are developed in media contexts, in particular in DE.

Finally, five studies on the production of media material, both physical and digital, for educational purposes were found. One example is the study developed by Peuker, Lima, Freire and Castro (2017), titled ‘Construção de um material educativo para a prevenção do câncer de colo do útero’. In it, the authors describe the process of construction of educational material on cervical cancer prevention, performed through the partnership between nursing, psychology, and design professionals.

Relationship between media and subject

The 41 references here listed discuss the relationship established between people and different media vehicles. That is to say, they comprise the relationship and not only what the media says about something, nor the media effects on people.

Gorrese and Jablonski (2002) in ‘Da comunicação do afeto ao afeto da comunicação: as cartas de fãs de telenovelas’, analyze letters sent to a soap opera actor by his fans. The authors identify these letters as an exercise of subjectivity and an opportunity for affective elaboration. Also approaching the discussion on fans, Vimieiro (2013) discusses in her article, ‘Fã-ativismo no Twitter: Comunidades online de fãs de esporte e a campanha #ForaRicardoTeixeira’, the online practices of sports fans.

Among studies that approach affective relations in the digital medium, we can cite the article, ‘Relações amorosas na contemporaneidade e indícios do colapso do amor romântico (solidão cibernética?)’. In it, Guedes and Assunção (2006) investigate how new technologies participate in the context of affective relations, and stress that the digital medium can contribute to the narcissistic and individualist cult.

To investigate the relationship that people establish with augmented reality, Galvão, Carmona and Ricarte (2018) developed a study with hospitalized children and adolescents, which was presented in the article, ‘A realidade aumentada e a disseminação da informação para crianças e adolescentes: estudo misto convergente’. The article shows that participants of the research evaluated positively the use of technology, which indicates the augmented reality resource potential for propagating information between children and adolescents.

In ‘A expressão e a elaboração do luto por adolescentes e adultos jovens através da internet’ (Peruzzo, Jung, Soares, & Scarparo, 2007), the use of social media as a space of expression of feelings is explored. For this purpose, the researchers developed a study on the Orkut social networking by analyzing users’ accounts on the experience of mourning. The research showed the importance of virtual space in the working through of mourning. Moreover, it evidenced the relevance of social media as a field of study in Psychology.

Analysis of the media use effects

This category encompasses 30 articles that concern, centrally, the effects - be they positive or negative - that the use of different media vehicles, especially digital ones, provoke in subjects in contemporaneity.

Studies approaching the negative effects predominate. Among them is ‘Medos infantis, cidade e violência: expressões em diferentes classes sociais’ (Vilhena, Bittencourt, Zamora, Novaes, & Bonato, 2011), where the authors discuss the role of the media in perpetuating the culture of fear and, consequently, in constructing children's fears. In the article, ‘A influência da mídia nos transtornos alimentares e na autoimagem de adolescentes’, Copetti and Quiroga (2018) reveal that disorders such as anorexia and bulimia can appear, or be aggravated, by the influence of content conveyed in social media.

Matters such as the influence of advertisement, culture of consumption, and addiction to the Internet arose among articles in this category. This last theme is approached by Fortim and Araújo (2013) in the article, ‘Aspectos psicológicos do uso patológico de internet’. In it the authors present results of a study made with users that declared themselves to be addicted to the Internet.

Four articles discussed the matter of cyberbullying. ‘Violência virtual entre alunos do ensino fundamental de diferentes estados do Brasil’ (Stelko-Pereira, Brito, Batista, Gondim, & Bezerra, 2018), through a study about the occurrence of cyberbullying in Brazilian schools, shows the importance of preventing the problem, especially between 8th and 9th grade students of elementary school, where the presence of this type of violence was found to be more frequent.

The article ‘Uso de Internet e de Jogos eletrônicos entre adolescentes em situação de vulnerabilidade social’ (Oliveira et al., 2017) reflects on how the Internet use can help promote opportunities that aim to decrease social inequality. In this sense, the authors address the importance of digital inclusion and of educating adolescents so that they make good use of the Internet, using technology in favor of citizenship.

Politics, citizenship, and social movements

The 15 articles categorized in this group draw forth discussions about the democratization of communication, media oligarchies, as well as the media as a space of expression and of identity construction/solidification in given groups and social movements.

The article ‘Lutas por reconhecimento dos surdos na Internet: efeitos políticos do testemunho’, by authors Garcêz and Maia (2009), is an example of study discussing the formation of political identity. In the same way, it evidences the relevance and opportunities that media vehicles offer to minority and marginalized groups and social movements; they favor their expression, recognition and visibility in the media, and help mobilize resistance strategies.

As for the communication democratization and oligopolies of the press, the article, ‘Direitos e a grande mídia brasileira’ (Lemos, Galindo, Queiroz, Nogueira, & Costa, 2015), in light of ideas of Michel Foucault, approaches the media struggles for democratization, as well as discourses of means of communication. The study indicates that the Brazilian media acts so as to create knowledge and power relations, and perpetuates domination processes through its discursive practices.

Media and Psychology: implications for training and professional practice

The 20 references classified in this category reflect on the implications of digital technology for the education and professional practice in Psychology. It is interesting to highlight that most studies are from 2010 onward.

Between studies that discuss, specifically, the use of digital media as a resource in psychology practice, it is possible to cite the article ‘Experimentando o dispositivo terapêutico de grupo via internet: primeiras considerações de manejo e desafios éticos’ (Donnamaria & Terzis, 2011), which approaches the practice and the ethical standpoint of online therapy, and describes the first results of a study about an online therapeutic group founded on Psychoanalysis. Concerning the influence of new media on training in Psychology, Stoque, Scotton, Lisboa and Neufeld (2016) in their article ‘Tecnologias da informação e comunicação e formação do psicólogo clínico’, expatiate upon the ICTs (information and communication technologies) influence on the training of psychologists, especially in the clinical context.

Some studies emphasize the effect of changes brought about by the media on the Psychologists’ practice. Silva (2004) in her work titled ‘A influência dos meios de comunicação social na problemática da escolha profissional: o que isso suscita à Psicologia no campo da orientação vocacional/profissional?’, ponders on the influence of means of communication on professional choice, considering them as an important part in the formation of subjects and discussing the role of Psychology in the face of this problem. Thinking the effects of those changes in Psychology more widely, in the article, ‘Mídia e psicologia: considerações sobre a influência da internet na subjetividade’, Moreira (2010) reflects about the media influence on subjectivity by discussing the increase of subjective production potential of the media with the arrival of the Internet.

Impacts caused by new technology

This category comprehends 12 references that focus on the transformations brought about by new technology in contemporaneity.

Severiano (2013) in her article titled, ‘A juventude em tempos acelerados: reflexões sobre consumo, indústria cultural e tecnologias informacionais’, analyzes from the new media technology, fetishized consumption, and cultural industry, the experience of time acceleration in the rhythm of life of young people. In light of Critical Social Psychology, she discusses the downtime assimilation by the productivist rationale of work.

In ‘Big Data, exploração ubíqua e propaganda dirigida: novas facetas da indústria cultural’, the researchers Antunes and Maia (2018) reflect on the false idea of freedom and new forms of manipulation that come with the rise of Digital Culture.

With the aim of studying the Deleuze and Guattari cartographic method potential in the context of digital networks, the article ‘Cartografias no ciberespaço: experimentações metodológicas em espaços híbridos’ (Albuquerque, Hennigen, & Fonseca, 2018) dialogues on the possible associations of cartography with other methodological strategies, so as to understand the complexity in processes of subjectification with the advent of digital technology.

Theoretical and methodological reflections

This was the category that gathered the lowest number of articles. The eight references that comprise it aim at the theoretical and/or methodological study of the media.

‘Emoção e subjetividade na paixão-pesquisa em comunicação: desafios e perspectivas metodológicas’, article authored by Baptista (2001), discusses the questions of ‘emotion’ and ‘subjectivity’ in the production of studies in Communication, questioning procedures and the relevance of objectivity in academia.

We can also cite a literature review about the theme of media, adolescence and sexuality developed by the authors Miguel and Toneli (2007) in the article, ‘Adolescência, sexualidade e mídia: uma breve revisão de literatura nacional e internacional’.

Final considerations

This literature review allowed proposing an overview on the Brazilian Psychology knowledge production about the media. In addition to an exiguous production, as pointed out at the beginning of the text and in the results presented, it was possible to note a higher production of studies as of the years 2010.

The studies considered diverse types of media: television, magazines, newspapers, radio, advertisements. Nonetheless, it should be stressed that, especially as of 2016, studies aimed at digital media, that is, social media, ICTs, digital games, blogs, websites, and the Internet itself, predominated.

The 246 references analyzed showed that Psychology has appropriated the theme of media from different perspectives. The most frequent is using it as a resource for accessing information about a given subject, as exemplified in the category, ‘What the media says about’. It is important to stress, moreover, that a negative view on means of communication is very frequent among the studies analyzed. The use of the expression ‘the influence of the media’ is very common and generally associated with a bad consequence: violence, eating disorders, loneliness, prejudice.

On the other hand, it was possible to find many researchers that focus on the interface between media and education, aiming their studies, in particular, at the analysis of the new technology repercussions on teaching and learning processes. More than half of the references about this subject discussed the use of media vehicles - be they analog or digital - as educational resources.

As for research concerning specifically the relationship between media and Psychology, reflecting on its implications for the training and practice of professionals in this area, it represented a small parcel of studies, totaling 8% of the 242 references. Most of them were directed at digital media. When the theme was thinking the Psychologists' practice, the focus was on online psychological intervention possibilities, especially psychotherapy. Seven studies were about this question, most of them published from 2016. Ethical challenges, psychotherapeutic possibilities, and therapeutic bond viability were among the topics approached in those references.

As pointed out at the beginning of this text, the current context, in particular after the pandemic triggered by Covid-19, has highlighted the imperious presence of digital media in contemporary life. The digital medium has been important, more than ever, at this moment. In addition to information, the new technology provides encounters that are prohibited in the ‘real world’. Affection, company, support, coziness, are found through videos, photos, video calls, applications that provide virtual encounters with family, friends, and coworkers.

Thus, social media, like other platforms comprising the digital sphere, can be considered an important space for producing meaning, insofar as they have enabled new forms of signification of the political, economic, and affective reality. In this sense, we can think that the digital is a condition for producing subjectification today; it produces a discursive materiality (Dias, 2018).

Such a scenario indicates the importance of Psychology approaching this theme. Although it is possible to claim that Psychology should have dedicated itself for long to studies about the media - for understanding the numerous contributions of this field of knowledge for understanding relations established between people and different media vehicles throughout history - one cannot deny that, currently, this question has become pressing.

In light of what has been shown so far, we understand that this literature review more than presenting a scenario about the interface between Psychology and media, points out the gaps in this relationship. Thus, it is hoped that it may contribute by indicating the existence of an important research niche for the field of Psychology, central for understanding the formation of subjectivities in the contemporary context.

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• 8
  NUGEMS is tied to the Psychology Department of the Federal University of Santa Catarina.
• 9
  https://scielo.org; http://www.bvs-psi.org.br/php/index.php; https://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycinfo/; https://www.scopus.com; http://pepsic.bvsalud.org.
• 10
  We stress that by using the term ‘media’, different means of communication are regarded, be they in-print, audiovisual, analog, or digital.
• 11
  The repetitions were not eliminated when the proportion was calculated, because the number of studies about ‘psychology’ that served as a basis for the calculation was also obtained without eliminating possible repetitions.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  09 Oct 2023
• Date of issue
  2023

History

• Received
  09 June 2020
• Accepted
  29 Mar 2021