Violence and death on social networks: towards a Snuff 2.0

Abstract

This article undertakes an exploration around images that, with respect to their socio-cultural performance, are considered abject. It is based on two axes of analysis. A) realism and the impression of reality, considering the evolutionary development of reproduction devices linked to cinema; as well as the configuration and social insertion of those images that have been assumed and are assumed as realistic in the context of modern audiovisual culture. B) The controversy over the diffusion, circulation and consumption of media images of violence and death, taking into account their construction and their effects of meaning. In the present we are faced with a phenomenon propitiated by the Internet, namely that of deaths –by murder, suicide or accident– which are broadcast through social networks. The goal here is to elucidate some fundamental characteristics of this novel object, connected to amateur video and the determinant role of the Internet in the contemporary evolution of the urban myth of snuff movies. Such an object would imply, to a greater or lesser extent, an updating of issues related to audiovisual production and the mentioned myth. We intend to investigate what this supposed updating would consist of.