Violence and the Press in the Western Sao Paulo: a Case Study

Abstract

In the press, police news have insinuated themselves with spectacular contours in the great public's daily life, spreading judgments of value that naturalizing the criminal fact. This paper aims to investigate a murder case published in two newspapers in the city of Assis, located in the upcountry of Sao Paulo state: the Jornal de Assis (1920-1963) and A Noticia (1935-1949). Occurred in 1936, the homicide had great repercussions in the assisenses' weekly news, which were appropriated in different forms. As a counterpoint, the research was unfolded in the investigation documents analysis in order to compare the elements reported and omitted and understand the criteria used by the newspapers on the published information and the crime characters' images built. In addition to that, it is important to consider the moment of decisive progress to which Assis was going through in the 1930s and the growing importance of the press as a formative instrument of public opinion.