Criminal violence in Brazilian moving images in 2010

Resumo

Television plays an essential role in the everyday life of Brazilian citizens, since ninety eight percent of the Brazilian households have a television set. Nevertheless, the majority of the population still has the analogue television as the main source of information and entertainment. Rede Globo and Rede Record are two principal free-to-air Brazilian television channels which concentrate the largest percentage of the national audience. Consequently, these channels can be considered as the powerful tool to create and simulate possible realities as well as to influence the public opinion throughout their news programs. In 2010, the topic of criminal violence was largely broadcasted in Brazilian televisions on a daily basis and this issue was particularly reviewed by the one of the segments of “Retrospectiva”, a year-end-review of the most important events of the year broadcast by Rede Globo and Rede Record channels. These television annual reviews narrated a melodramatic confrontation between drug dealer suspects and law enforcement agencies in the Complexo do Alemão slums, located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The visual narratives of Retrospectivas reinforce that criminal suspects are the problem of favelas and the police acts to bring back the lost hope, peace and security. Finally, the representation of the contemporary life in slums in Rio de Janeiro has criminal violence as a central focus of the narratives in Brazilian television.