Quadros de suicídio : um estudo comparado das narrativas sobre autoextermínio no jornalismo diário

Abstract

This dissertation aims to investigate how the news narrates suicide. Taking into account the circulation figures of daily newspapers, their business nature and the historical relationship of their country or region with the issue of self-extermination, four English-language vehicles were chosen to carry out this research, they are: Daily Mail, People's Daily, Times of India and USA Today. Since it is necessary to consider chronological aspects of the West, China and India, the works of Barbagli (2019) and Minois (2018) were used as a reference to reconstruct how these civilizations' conceptions of suicide were formed. As a theoretical-methodological framework, a qualitative approach of descriptive and comparative character was chosen. Therefore, the narratology was chosen, based on the work of Motta (2013), added to the framing theory, considering the contribuition of Entman (1993), van Gorp (2007, 2010). As a result, it was shown that each country has its modus operandi. For both Western and Indian newspapers, suicide is narrated as a cause-and-consequence relationship; that is, something causes triggers and the result is self-extermination. The difference, however, happens in the medium of this purpose. While the Daily Mail constructs a plot in which voluntary death is the result of a hostile and unequal relationship, the Times of India perceives it as the result of a problem beyond the individual. USA Today, in turn, presented a more moderate view, in which there is a more political and less emotional conduct – either because of state incompetence or ease in purchasing products that are harmful to human health. On the other hand, the Chinese newspaper addresses the issue of suicide only in terrorist attacks, otherwise it is not even mentioned. These results, as a result of the narrative patterns found, show how the news in daily newspapers with the largest circulation in English face and portray, in its lines and between the lines, voluntary death within their daily lives.