Mídia policial, sistema penal e(m) discurso: A cobertura do Caso Lázaro Barbosa pelo programa Cidade Alerta e o circuito de extermínio da juventude negra brasileira

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the role of the media in violence practices within the framework of the extermination project of black youth in Brazil, based on the study of the journalistic coverage of the program Cidade Alerta (Record TV) in the Case Lázaro Barbosa. To do so, it traverses through the study of the relationships between racism, media, discourse, and the penal system, from criminology and criminal policy, from a critical perspective. Within this paradigm, it observes the function performed by the dissemination of fear in the historically executed control and repression policies in Brazilian territory and in the state of Goiás, where the search operation for Lázaro Barbosa was conducted. In this sense, the bibliographic research will be guided by the study of thematic literature, with emphasis on Vera Batista (2003a and 2003b) and Nilo Batista (2002 and 2003), in the field of criminology and criminal policy; Stuart Hall (2016), Michel Foucault (1996), and Van Dijk (2018) in the analysis of discourse and reproduction of racism in mass media; Kléber Mendonça (2001) in the study of the police program Linha Direta; Eliézer de Oliveira (2006) in the investigation of fear and narratives of catastrophe in the state of Goiás. The corpus of analysis consists of the editions of the news program between June 9 and 29, 2021, and the results were methodologically divided based on the representation strategies of Lázaro (the Evil), the Police, and the Program itself (the Good) in the narrative forged by the news program, guided by a logic of war elevated to a celestial level, between God and the Devil. In addition, the enunciative processes of anticipation and legitimization of Lázaro's death are highlighted, as well as the consequences enabled by the transcendence of his image, whether in the punishment of his family members or in violence within the circuit of extermination of Brazilian black youth. The coverage of the case by the news program, carried out simultaneously, immediately, instantaneously, and "exclusively," fueled the national dissemination of fear and a state of alert, enabling the practice of violence against members of historically marginalized groups, preferred targets of the Brazilian penal system, which has the media as one of its main investigative and executive agencies.