The face of suffering on tv: notes on close-up in television journalism

Abstract

The article investigates the exhibition of the ordinary people's faces on television from aesthetic and political implications regarding the depiction of the witnessing of suffering subjects in narratives. It starts from the recognition of television images in the foreground as expressive forms capable of producing intimacy with the subject that suffers before the camera. Then it stands the close-up as a strategy-driven instrumentalization of the suffering of others, in the light of the so-called politics of pity. It reflects on the coincidence of the characters face's appearing and the account of its word. Finally, we examine the television vis-à-vis and the confrontation of the spectators with the uniqueness and ordinariness of suffering subjects. As a place of questioning, we analyzed the programs A Liga (Bandeirantes) and A verdade de cada um (National Geographic).