Urban violence in Brazil and the role of the media: Communicative effects of systematic metaphors in discourse

This paper reports on analyses of data gathered from discourse interactions of two focus groups of Brazilian university students (n = 11) as they talk about urban violence in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil. The analytical procedure follows Cameron et al.’s (2009) metaphor-led discourse analysis which focuses on the role metaphor vehicles play in the emergence of systematic metaphors in discourse. The findings highlight the trivialization of violence in Brazil by the media/TV, evidenced by the emergence in the talk of three related systematic metaphors: violence is a product manufactured by the media, violence is a spreading contagious disease and fear as a response to violence is a form of imprisonment.