Enredar a morte

: assassinatos digitalizados no Brasil dos anos 2010

Abstract

This dissertation aims to investigate the relationships between representations of murder and the internet in Brazil, positioning, in particular, crimes of the 2010s as cultural events that remediate established languages and practices (namely from the press, music, cinema and television) as ways of confronting inequalities or violent imaginaries. As a general hypothesis, it is questioned whether, due to the digitalization promoted by the cultural industries, the modern legacy of narratives of violence presents continuities. Through an analysis of how the critique of late modernity theorized Latin American cultural industries and the ways in which Brazil produced and reproduced crimes in times of globalization, the academic production on postmodernity is revisited to link homicide cases mediated by YouTube and Facebook to broader socio- technological transformations. Have practices in digital environments challenged hierarchical communications, or perpetuated long-standing stratifications? Furthermore, the research aims to locate specificities about the Brazilian case in the period, and to understand peculiar mechanisms involving crime and culture, between 2013 and 2019. Employing a culture studies perspective, in order for the cultural manifestations under analysis to reflect the contemporary practices of production, reception and consumption of true crime stories after the digital turn, the research discusses the concept of loops and spirals from cultural criminology to reveal how contemporary mediations alter the way in which mass communication took over functions of the state before the 21st century. The thesis posits that criminal plots (now online) still circulate aesthetic materialities and discourses of violence related to structural entanglements of the Brazilian late modernity, namely the appropriation of violence by tactics of sensationalism and spectacle, punitive rhetorics and a claim for the replacement of state institutions in responding to public safety problems.

Date of Award	13 May 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Isabel Capeloa Gil (Supervisor)