An analysis of insecurity in the press: discursive representations of a criminal case in the newspaper

Abstract

In July 2010, Carolina Piparo, a young pregnant woman who lived in Buenos Aires Province, was violently robbed by two young men after withdrawing money from a bank. As a result, she had an urgent delivery and soon after her baby died. The case was largely covered by the media and it gained political relevance: it was perceived as a paradigmatic case of the lack of safety (“inseguridad”), a prioritary issue in the Argentinian public agenda. We are interested in analysing how Argentinian media represents what is usually called “hechos de inseguridad”, that is, crime and violence (and the fear of crime and violence). The aim of this paper is to study, with a Critical Discourse Analysis approach (CDA), the discursive representations about the case and the actors involved (victims, offenders, banks, police and politicians) in the main national newspapers. The results show that news (with different approaches according to each newspaper) represent victims as a central figure, often appealing to an emotive and moral dimension, opposed to the criminals, represented as savage and inhuman. The case, described as “brutal” and “shocking”, plays a main role in the (re)production of a script which authorizes the demands for safety by questioning the institutions (banks, police or the government) and presenting a terrifying scenario.