The New Criminal News: Narrative Modalities on Fear of Crime in Newscasts of the City of Buenos Aires, 2015–2019

Abstract

The agenda of discussion on insecurity displays variations that reflect not only the sociopolitical context, but also the resulting transformations in the language of audio-visual communication that result from the emergence of new sources of information, the use of images to depict real events, and a certain aesthetic of objectivity that new technologies tend to foster. This article exposes, from an interpretative standpoint, the variations in the informative treatment of criminal news featured by five over-the-air television news programs which were broadcast within the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina) between 2015 and 2019. The aim of this research project is to make a contribution to the specialized literature on the subject by providing qualitative data and explanatory schemes relating to the manner in which the appearance of these new formats and journalistic frameworks on the topic of “insecurity” inaugurate a new debate around the construction of public issues in the Argentinian audio-visual context. In view of this, the present analysis considers the staging of new declarative modalities as well as a series of strategies for hierarchically structuring the voices of citizen and the profile of criminal subjects within the specific framework of television newscasts. The main results of the study indicate that television news programs promote (through expert advice and the editorializing of news) the adoption of attitudes of prevention by the general public to protect themselves against urban violence, thus addressing individuals as citizens and neighbors at risk, whereas the topic of insecurity as a whole is conveyed through a narrative that tends to gravitate around the victims pain.