The construction of violence in South African newspapers

Implications for prevention

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12438809
AutoresMohamed Seedat (0000-0001-9018-3370, autor correspondente)
Ano1999
Volume5
Fascículo2
Páginas117-135
Data de publicação1999-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPeace and Conflict Journal of Peace Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1078-1919 • E-ISSN: 1532-7949
EditoraAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1207/s15327949pac0502_2
OpenAlexW2050949285
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas5

In the absence of a national health information system in South Africa, the control and management of violence tends to be guided by the media. The press, apart from its contradictory ideological functions of naturalizing hegemonic control and forging public consensus and agency, imprints skewed constructions of violence on the public mind. Accordingly, a content analysis of selected South African newspaper reports reveals how the media present a primary and secondary construction of violence. The primary construction, based on the few articles that provide demographic information, portrays violence as a criminal-cum-political and public phenomenon that mainly involves young African men. In this primary construction the key instruments of violence are guns, sharp objects, hands, fists, and explosives. The secondary construction, based on the omission of details, places the accent on the weapons of violence rather than on the victims and perpetrators. Violence is defined as an ubiquitous, faceless, meaning

Criminology · Media studies · Newspaper · Political science · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · History · Intimate Partner and Family Violence