Media Coverage of Trauma in the Post-Pandemic World

Presentation of a research project as part of the "Jeudis de la Maison Suger", a residents' research seminar.

During this session, Renata de Rezende Ribeiro will present the main themes of her ongoing research, "Media Coverage of Pain and Emotions: Resistance, Connections, and the Creation of Meaning in Vulnerable Contexts", focusing on media representations of trauma in the post-pandemic world.

Presentation of the project

"Contemporary dynamics of vulnerability are often accompanied by narratives of pain that reinscribe traumatic experiences and tend to naturalise such conditions, while obscuring collective resistance and solidarity. In contrast, the textualities produced by vulnerable subjects and communities offer 'counter-images' capable of articulating meaning and mobilising affect as forms of resistance. From this perspective, 21st-century communication practices—particularly the sharing of testimonies on digital social networks—constitute a space for the collective elaboration of what we call ‘mediatized trauma’.

The circulation of narratives of suffering not only documents the violence endured but also produces networks of affect and affectation. In the post-pandemic context, the issue of trauma—particularly among young people—has taken centre stage due to illness, bereavement, prolonged isolation, and the intensification of structural violence. Trauma thus transcends the individual sphere and assumes collective and generational dimensions (Caruth, 1996; Fassin & Rechtman, 2007), manifesting through digitally mediated emotional repertoires and modes of sociability. However, the phenomenon is ambivalent: while social networks foster identification and the destigmatisation of mental health issues, they can also lead to overexposure, vicarious retraumatisation, and toxic comparison. This seminar offers a critical examination of how digitally mediated narratives of pain and trauma generate collective affects and reconfigure contemporary social bonds."

Speaker

Renata de Rezende Ribeiro is a professor and researcher in the Media and Daily Life programme and teaches in the Department of Social Communication at Fluminense Federal University (UFF), Brazil. She holds a PhD in Communication and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at René Descartes University – Paris V. She was a visiting professor at the Universities of Montpellier 3 and Paris 12 in 2024.
She is the author of several articles and books, including La mort médiatisée (Mediatized Death), Protagonisme médiatique et pandémie : traverser les ruines, réenchanter le monde (Media Protagonism and Pandemic: Crossing the Ruins, Re-enchanting the World), Émotions et raisons médiatiques (Emotions and Media Reason), and La douleur médiatisée (Mediatized Pain).