Mediatization and Post-Mortem Stoning: Foundations for the Murder of Reputations of Young Victims of Police Lethality

Abstract

From the perspective of mediatization as a phenomenon linked to power, cultural hegemony, and symbolic domination, this article seeks to understand the process of perpetuating structures of violence, stereotyping, and racism that permeate Brazilian society, considering the media as a mechanism that not only reflects but also reinforces and naturalizes social inequalities, perpetuating the dehumanization of Black and poor bodies. To this end, the study aims to articulate concepts such as mediatic bios by Muniz Sodré and alienation in everyday life by Ágnes Heller with the historical process of constructing racist ideologies, culminating in what we call post-mortem stoning — that is, the death (in the media) of the reputations of victims of police lethality.