THE EXTENSION OF THE MEDIA EVENT: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS FROM THE CONCEPTS OF CONFIDENCE AND CONCESSION

Abstract

Based on the propositions of tensive semiotics, in this paper, we analyze the cover of the so-called Isabella Nardoni Case, conducted by Brazilian television news program Jornal Nacional, in which father and stepmother murdered their own daughter/stepdaughter, a five-year-old girl. This episode, subsumed under the journalistic category called fait divers (feature stories), had one of the biggest media impacts of the 2000s. We make use of two concepts – confidence and concession – to explain why despite the passage of time, the impact of the case have been so enduring. One reason for such maintenance of thymic load is justified by the modality believing in the unbelievable, which refers to the semiotic notion of concession, in other words, although it was not possible, such a thing happened. From the relationship between these two concepts, we could deduce an enunciatee in whose presence field tonicity is projected on temporality, creating an effect of persistence.