Objectivation and anchoring of the social representations of suicide in the press

Abstract

This reserch analyses the meanings of suicide in a particular field of production of meanings and social construction of shared knowledge: the press. From a conceptual and methodological point of view, this study is based on the concept of social representation. Within the framework of this concept the objectivation of suicide in the Portuguese press is examined, and this process is articulated with the process of anchoring. The results obtained show how the anchoring of suicide in different systems of communication (propagation and diffusion) is linked with specific forms of objectivation through metaphors, prototypes and examplars.