Silenced Behind Bars: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Media's Depiction of Death in Jails

• In Event: Media and Discourse

Abstract

The US carceral state arrests and jails about 4.9 million people each year. Due to overcrowding, inadequate healthcare, and routine exposure to violence, incarceration can perpetuate mental health conditions and worsen chronic illness, which can lead to death. Current research indicates that chronic diseases and disorders, drug and alcohol-related use, accidents, suicides, and homicides are the leading causes of death among incarcerated populations. Despite the ample information surrounding the reasons for jail-related deaths, little research has explored media coverage of this phenomenon. Using a critical discourse analysis, we seek to understand how the media depicts death within jails and how media framing of deaths in jails varies upon racial groups. Drawing on theories that inhabit the biopolitical-necropolitical continuum outlined by Foucault and Mbembe, we argue that the media's presentation of jail-related deaths embodies and perpetuates narratives surrounding who is worthy of living and who the state must let die. In our analysis, we highlight the various rhetorical strategies and tools the state employs to uphold its violence within jails. We further argue that media depictions of racialized populations within jail constitute an act of necropolitical governance, granting the state the very right to exact death upon these groups.

Authors

• Hayley Jackey, Old Dominion University

• Nicolas Ryan Howard, Old Dominion University

• Narissa A. Haakmat, Old Dominion University