Big data media analysis and the representation of urban violence in Brazil

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Brazil's current social and political situation gives rise to a particular breed of urban violence aimed at individuals and characterized by its continual presence. The average Brazilian citizen has to contend with this violence on a daily basis. This creates a general state of fear and insecurity among the population in general, but, at the same time, may promote on the part of more socially aware individuals, a sense of empathy with the less privileged classes in Brazil. The influence of the media contributes to this scenario. Daily news reports highlight violent acts carried out by individuals or groups from all social classes. The impact of violence on people's everyday lives is thus amplified by the media. This fosters beliefs, attitudes and values related to violence, which may or may not be consistent with the actual incidence, forms and causes of violence.The partners will investigate the linguistic representation of urban violence in Brazil by applying the techniques of Corpus Linguistics to two datasets, or 'corpora':1. The existing transcripts of two focus groups on living with urban violence conducted in Fortaleza, Brazil in 2010, for a total of approximately 20,000 words (Focus Groups Corpus);2. A 2-million-word corpus of news reports in the Brazilian press, to be constructed as part of the partnership (News Reports Corpus).