Not a true copy. Processes of stigmatization in the photographic narrative of media coverage¹

Abstract

In this article, the main findings of a study are presented which reveals and interprets the discourses and images about violence in school ambience in the newspapers of the city of La Plata in Argentina. We focus on the photographic narratives in the news coverage by El Día, Hoy, Extra, and Diagonales from the city of La Plata, between 1993 and 2011. The objective was to address the effects of the images disseminated by the printed media chosen, taking the material thickness of the photographs as documents. Continuities were searched in the series of images selected, with the purpose of finding forces in tension. The methodological approach is qualitative and the interpretation of the data was conducted by the socio-educative analysis of the discourse. The results obtained highlight the images which stress the dualist opposition between the victim and the perpetrator as this depicts each pole of the pair in a different manner. In addition, youths from socially deprived sectors are presented as the very face of insecurity and violence in school ambience. This investigation broadens the empirical basis to review and discuss the representations in the media, and how the cores of common-sense are retained through the photographs.

Communication media; Photographs; Young people; School; Violence