This paper is based on a discursive analysis of reports from the highest circulating mass print media available in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Here we examine the ideology underlying a specific series on “crack epidemics”. Depth hermeneutics were used for the theoretical and methodologic approach applied to the analysis. The results of the ideologic analysis indicated how relations of domination were established and/or sustained in the specific series. Several ideologic strategies were identified in the series of reports examined: universalization, naturalization, differentiation, purging of the other, standardization and euphemization, among others. These strategies work together obscuring important meanings for understanding the phenomenon in question.
Social psychology; Media; Drugs; Cocaine crack
