The Force of Grace, the Grace of Force: Joking Critique of Figures of ‘Urban Violence’ on the Covers of a Tabloid Newspaper as the ‘Violentization’ of Public Discourse

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4322/dilemas.v15n3.46465

Keywords:

comic, humorous critique, urban violence, ‘Meia Hora’ newspaper, tabloids

Abstract

This article sets out to analyse how a set of social representations of urban violence in Rio de Janeiro is revealed in public humorous critique. The research is based on a study of around 2,400 covers of the tabloid Meia Hora, famous for its comic presentation of the news, which were published between 2011 and 2017, a period corresponding to a routinization established by Rio’s Pacifying Police Units (UPPs). The analysis reveals how the ridicule deployed in humorous critique expresses the social representations of three main figures in the context of Rio de Janeiro’s urban violence: the criminal, the police officer and Rio de Janeiro itself as a social order.

Author Biography

Alexandre Werneck, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Professor do Departamento de Sociologia e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Sociologia e Antropologia (PPGSA) da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ, Brasil). Coordena o Núcleo de Estudos da Cidadania, Conflito e Violência Urbana (Necvu) da UFRJ. É doutor pelo PPGSA/UFRJ, mestre pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação e Cultura (PPGCC) da Escola de Comunicação (ECO) da UFRJ e graduado em ciências da comunicação pela mesma universidade.

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Published

2022-09-02

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 3 (2022): SET/OUT/NOV/DEZ

Section

Articles

License

Upon submitting a text, the authors retain copyright and grant DILEMAS - Revista de Estudos de Conflito e Controle Social the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons License type attribution BY (CC-BY), which permits sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.