The representation of the Other in discourse about public spaces in the Peruvian press: the case of the fountain of Chorrillos

Alvarado Valladares K. · Discurso y Sociedad (2022)

Resumen

In Peru, during the last decades, the citizen's right to public space is being discussed as a result of the intensification of restrictive measures and the circulation of rhetoric regarding practices of "good" citizenship. Thus, discourses on how the space should be used are established. Considering the above, this paper aims to analyze how the media discursively constructs a public space and its users. Attention is paid to the discursive strategies adopted by the media when reporting a particular event: the entry of individuals into a fountain in the city of Lima. For this purpose, the main postulates of Discursive Psychology and those of studies on public space and racism in Peru are followed. The central finding is the identification of two dichotomous representations: on one hand, the dominant version considers the fountain as an ornamental space and those who entered it to a process of othering; on the other hand, an alternative version configures the fountain as a public space that fulfills the function that the users decided to grant it at that particular moment. In a complementary manner, the approach (or evasion) of the topic of racism in some of the analyzed journalistic texts is discussed. I conclude, then, that the media plays a fundamental role in the legitimation of certain interpretations about the use of space, which are uncritical and contribute to rhetoric that seeks to further othering. Copyright

Instituciones: Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya