The scenography of entertainment in journalistic discourse

Abstract

The newspaper is a discursive practice that aims to impart information to individuals, with a heavy burden of responsibility. Its pages contain news and reports about the different subjects of everyday social life, but there is a certain predisposition in news about violent incidents. Nonetheless, across all forms of media, it is possible to encounter a transgression of the genre’s characteristics. Given that problem, we seek to understand how journalistic discourse is presented as a scenography of the discourse of entertainment, pervaded by the discourse of violence. Moreover, we attempt to analyze how the strategies of journalistic discourse enable the construction of that scenography. To this end, we draw on the theoretical assumptions of Dominique Maingueneau (2008), Muchembled (2012), Michaud (1989) and Cano (2012) to achieve our objectives. We thus hope to contribute to discussions in the area of discourse analysis, particularly those on journalistic discourse. We understand that the strategies used by the newspaper enable an interaction with entertainment and that a subtle violence pervades this relationship. As a result, the reading public is not only informed about world affairs but also consumes violence and entertainment, through the scenography that is constructed.