Parem de nos matar: a violência de gênero em narrativas jornalísticas na pandemia

Abstract

This research investigates how journalistic narratives about gender violence against women and LGBTQIA+ in the Covid-19 pandemic are constructed in Brazilian news portals between 2020 and 2021, based on the analysis of two specific events. Gender violence intensified during the pandemic, mainly due to isolation measures, the economic and health crisis caused by the disease, deepening gender inequalities. To understand how journalism narrates gender violence, the research starts from a theoretical argument about the studies of journalism, gender, gender violence against women and LGBTQIA+ and journalistic narratives. From Lerner (2019), it is understood how gender and patriarchy articulate a system of production of inequalities and violence against women and gender-diverse people. The historical and social constitution of violence against women and LGBTQIA+, achievements, advances and setbacks in public policies to face violence are essential to understand the production and worsening of gender violence in the Covid-19 pandemic. The event and journalistic narratives are central concepts for thinking about the role of journalism and the journalist in the production of journalistic narratives about gender violence and the meanings they generate. Thus, through the analysis of the narrative of two events of national repercussion on gender violence, the hearing of the Mariana Ferrer case and the case of Roberta Nascimento, a victim of transfemicide who had her body burned by a teenager in Recife, it is clear that the Journalism simplifies the issue of gender violence by only reporting events succinctly and episodicly. In this way, I understand that gender violence, in its origin and modes of production, is not perceived as a journalistic event, even though events of this nature accumulate on a daily basis. The narratives barely articulate cases, events and data on violence, and still maintain institutional sources as their main sources, especially police sources. It is also possible to perceive a differentiated narrative construction in the analyzed cases, both in the description of the violence and in the identification and treatment given to the victims, who are sometimes exposed and revictimized. Journalism does not take advantage of its position as a legitimate institution to produce more humane and interested narratives that promote public debate and the production of knowledge. However, it is possible to observe that there are ongoing changes with initiatives that work from a gender perspective, attentive to the current context and the discussions of gender and sexuality that arise through social networking sites.