El drama del delicte als ‘mass media’

News about crime has erupted forcefully in the media. Information about violent deaths and assassinations has been incorporated into the media agenda which is consumed daily by millions ofpeople, and this information constitutes a new ritual ofcrime which must be studied in order to look into what discourse is offered by the press with regard to one of the subjects which most captures their audience's imagination. This article highlights the way the event has always been expressed in the form of melodrama, both when the punishment was theatricalized by the king as well as when it emerges in popular forms of expression. A melodrama where a battle is fought for collective recognition. A space where anxieties and insecurities are projected with stories which satisfy the popular attraction to mystery. News which connects with an imagination caught by commonplaces and fears, real and imaginary. Information which bears the imprint and the filters of the discourse which emanates from power and which has always wanted to present the staging ofcrime as a morality play that the people must see to identify the guilty party. The old ritual of crime disappeared from town squares; the new one has appeared forcefully on the television screen and on the first page of the papers. Both continue to be marked by dramatization and a collective perception full of myths and symbols which distort the discourse of reason.