Meios e medos: representações sobre menores infratores nos telejornais uruguaios

Abstract

The work's subject is the coverage that the media, through Uruguayan TV newscasts, made over the acts of violence perpetrated by adolescents and its impact on social representations of the child. The surroundings of the media are developing rapidly in Uruguay due to several factors, among which are their small populations, sustainable growth, policies focused on universal coverage goals and an important legacy of social movements and institutions of civil society. Despite this scenario, there is a high perception of insecurity by Uruguayan people with regard to offenses committed by minors. On October 26, 2014 the Uruguayan citizen was summoned to a plebiscite in order to change the Constitution in order to reduce the age of criminal responsibility, which resulted disapproved. This study aims to investigate to what extent news programs helped to get to that instance. It uses the methodological approach of the narrative to establish, as the media, primarily through ideology, collaborated in the construction of social representations that aim to construct the identity of the juvenile offender as a dangerous monster.