Media and necropower: a pedagogical instance of the death scenario

Abstract

Media representations frequently associate Black populations with violent or marginalized behaviors, reinforcing the notion of criminality and justifying police action as a necessary response. This social construction not only dehumanizes young Black individuals but also contributes to a cycle of oppression manifesting in public policies and policing practices. This text, an excerpt from a Master's research project, aims to understand media narratives about being a young Black person as presented on the G1 news portal, through the lens of what I term the “Pedagogy of Death and Resistance” (Silva, 2024). Fourteen news articles from the portal were analyzed, focusing on the killing of young Black individuals by the police in Rio de Janeiro, a territory regarded as contested and marked by necropower (Mbembe, 2018). Grounded in Cultural Studies in Education, I employ the concept of the media's pedagogical apparatus (Fischer, 2007) to identify media spaces as loci of knowledge production and circulation. The methodology is based on cultural analysis, treating news stories as artifacts that shape "reality." The analyses highlight the everyday experiences of Black youth and their relationship to death, revealing how the media normalizes these killings. It also demonstrates how the “language of absences” prevents connecting these murders to a context of genocide by concealing race as a significant marker. Furthermore, it is evident that the strategy of selecting or omitting publicized images is not neutral, as it perpetuates stereotypes. However, there is room for counter-representations, particularly through the voices of victims' families and the community, which resonate through the cracks in the necropolitical landscape.