Mediated Trauma and Eroticized Panic in the Capitalist Spectacle: A South Asian and Bangladesh Perspectives

This research critically examines the production, circulation, and reception of mediated trauma and eroticized panic within capitalist media spectacles, with a specific focus on South Asia and Bangladesh. Drawing on a hybrid methodological approach that integrates critical discourse analysis, visual semiotics, psychoanalytic media theory, and digital ethnography, the study investigates how trauma is transformed into a consumable and affective product within the capitalist logic of media industries. Analyzing over 100 high-impact media texts and incorporating empirical data from 500 audience surveys, 25 in-depth interviews, and 10 focus groups, the research reveals how suffering—particularly gendered and political—is aestheticized, eroticized, and weaponized through spectacle. Findings indicate that capitalist media ecosystems exploit panic and trauma not only as tools for control and distraction but also as libidinal stimuli that blur the boundaries between empathy and voyeurism, resistance and submission. Moreover, audience interpretations reflect complex emotional negotiations, ranging from affective numbness and moral fatigue to critical resistance and political mobilization. The paper situates these dynamics within broader structures of postcolonial governance, patriarchal capitalism, algorithmic amplification, and affective economies. Ultimately, it argues that the eroticized spectacle of panic is central to the reproduction of neoliberal hegemony in the South Asian mediascape.