IMER Master Thesis 1 yearSpring 2015GP501

“Who are they & why are they here?” A media analysis of the negative portrayal of immigrants in the mainstream Greek press.

Author: Eleni-Ioanna Malafouri 890301T289 Supervisor: Christian FernandezExaminer: Margareta Popoola

Aknowledgements

I would like to seize the opportunity to thank the department of Global & Political Studies of

the University of Malmö for providing the most fostering environment for my academic

development.

Special thanks to Christian Fernandez for his constant guidance that has been proven of

immeasurable importance during the conduct of this dissertation and Joanna Tsoni for her

advice and support. Many thanks to all my Master's colleagues, especially Charlotte

Rasmussen, Kyle Campbell, Rennato Johnsson and Nara Farias who enriched my knowledge

of the IMER field.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to my parents for their undivided support and caring.

To my close friend Chryssa for cultivating, day by day in our friendship, my sensitivity

towards matters of migration and last but not least my fiancé, Socrates, for his unconditional

love, company and support during the conduct of this thesis and in every aspect of my life.

AbstractEleni-Ioanna Malafouri, International Migration and Ethnic Relations, University of Malmö.

Abstract of Master's Thesis, Submitted 22 May 2015: Who are they and why are they here? A

media analysis of the negative portrayal of immigrants in the mainstream Greek press.

This study is an initial attempt to investigate the negative depiction of immigrants in

the mainstream Greek press of the 2000s. Our goal is to identify the dimensions of negative

image-making and discuss the dichotomy of the ''identity'' and the ''otherness'' projected in the

contemporary press. In order to accomplish that, data, collected from selected articles in a

number of best-selling Greek newspapers, were scrutinised with regards to their content, style

of writing, presentation as well as their readability and triggering of a wider social discourse

at the time of their publication. Using a retroductive approach, to wit travelling back and forth

from the general phenomenon to specific incidents, we showed that via the presentation of the

negative association of the immigrants with a) criminality, b) the obscure market and c) their

unworthiness to bear national symbols, the mainstream Greek press intensifies the presence of

certain dichotomies. Such dichotomies, as they appeared in the text and presentation of the

articles, are the “identity” versus the “otherness”, “we” versus “they”, as well as one’s race

“superiority” versus the “inferiority” of the other, “locals” versus “immigrants”.

Key concepts: media, media portrayal, Greece, immigrants, public sphere,

representation, stereotyping, superiority, inferiority, newspapers, identity, otherness.

For all the “damned” of the world....

Table of Contents

1.Introduction……………………………………………………………………………1

1.1Statement of the topic and motives ……………………………………..…………...1

1.2Aim and research questions………………………………………………………..…2

1.3Outline of the thesis……………………………………………………………..……3

2Contextual Background and Prior Research…………………………………………...4

3Theoretical Framework………………………………………………………………..11

4Research Strategy and Methodology / Delimitations and Material Selection………...14

4.1Research Strategy……………………………………………………………….…..14

4.2Methodology and Delimitations……………………………………………….……14

4.3Resource Selection……………………………………………………………….…17

4.4Media Outlets…………………………………………………………………….…18

4.5List of Selected Articles……………………………………………………….……19

5Material Analysis……………………………………………………………………...21

5.1Immigrants and the impact on unemployment rates………………………………..21

5.2Immigrants bearing national symbols………………………………………………26

5.3Immigrants and their involvement in criminal acts…………………………..…….31

6Discussion…………………………………………………………………………….36

7Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………38

8References……………………………………………………………………….……41

8.1Greek Literature………………………………………………………………….....41

8.2English Literature……………………………………………………………..……43

8.3Digital Media Outlets………………………………………………………….…...44

1

“Who are they and why are they here?” A media analysis of the negative portrayal

of immigrants in the mainstream Greek press.

1. Introduction1.1 Statement of the topic and motives

Drawing upon the fact that there is an acute turmoil taking place in the political scene

of Greece as well as the recent media discourses over the immigrant shelters in the country, I

have decided to set myself out on an investigation of the role of the media with regards to

matters of immigration.

Greece being my homeland even more so within the framework of the current state of

recession is the main reason for choosing to focus my academic investigation on its territories.

Having studied and worked as a journalist in various Greek media, including the National

Radio and Television of Greece (ERT S.A), I have always been sensitised in the media

portrayal of immigrants and the discussions taking place over the notion of immigration; not

to mention, from a more theoretical -or even philosophical- point of view the ways in which

media have the capacity to influence the society.

Nevertheless, apart from my personal zeal, it is the country's current state that drew

my attention towards a sociological approach on migration matters. On the dawn of the World

War I and the Greek Civil War, Greece has been characterised by the mass flows of

emigration. Especially during the latter, about 130,000 people were forced to seek asylum in

other countries as political refugees (Vergeti, 2003). After the collapse of the USSR and the

political instability in Albania in the 90's and the Middle East in the early 00’s (Kassimis &

Kassimi, 2004), Greece took a shift from being a sending country to a popular destination for

immigrants, as well as a way-point for those involved in transit migration, aiming at entering

Europe, given the country's geographical position. Being involved in the contemporary media

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of my country, I was always shocked by the aggregate presence of nationalism and the more

often than not negative illustration of immigrants in the press or the TV. In that perspective,

there is a justifiable question to be asked and it is what drove me to get involved with this

attempt: Why would a society that has a great history of emigration keep a negative attitude

towards the receiving immigrants?

1.2 Aim & Research Questions

Through this dissertation we intend to illustrate and discuss the ways in which the

mainstream Greek press has presented the phenomenon of immigration from the first major

inbound flow, during the 90's, up until today, on the back of a primarily negative bias.

In order to achieve our objectives, we have articulated one main research question that would

function as the guideline of our investigation and three sub-questions that provide precision.

In what ways does the mainstream Greek press sketch a negative portrait of the

immigrants living in the country?

Sub-questions:

1. How are the negative images of immigrants projected in the mainstream Greek press

identified?

2. What are the dimensions of the negative depiction of immigrants in the mainstream

Greek press over the course of time?

3. Which are the main positions of the mainstream Greek press regarding negative

representation of immigration?

1.3 Outline of the thesis

In order for this thesis to offer a neat overview of the phenomenon, it is divided in

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seven chapters. The first chapter serves as an introductory section that informs the reader over

the aim of this study and the research questions to be answered.

The second chapter is comprised of a general background as well as the description of

research conducted within the wider field, starting from the first attempts of the researchers to

approach the phenomenon of immigration in Greece and moving on to more specific studies,

closest to our own, aiming at the combination of migration, media and sociology studies.

In the third chapter we present the theoretical framework which will be used as an

umbrella for our material analysis. In the course of this section, we will interrogate the

concept of representation and stereotyping in the press, as well as the dichotomies formed,

such as the rhetorics of superiority / inferiority, identity / otherness, we / they.

The fourth chapter is dedicated to the methodology followed in order for us to

approach the answers of this thesis' research questions and draw our conclusions in a reliable

way. In this section, we present our research approach, the selection of our material, a brief

description of the Greek press background as well as a list of the articles used in our analysis.

The material analysis of our research takes place in the fifth chapter that is divided in

three subsections, according to the three axes of investigation, which will be identified and

justified in prior chapters. Each subsection contains a concluding summary, where the essence

of the analysis is offered in a condensed form.

The sixth chapter of the thesis is comprised of a discussion based on the material

analysis findings and the theoretical framework projected to the wider, general Greek media

discourse over the phenomenon of immigration in the country.

Last but not least, chapter seven contains a brief summary of our attempt along with

our suggestions for further investigation of the matter in question.

2. Contextual Background & Prior Research

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In this chapter we shall present a contextual background as well as an overview of the

prior research, in order to provide the reader with a fair knowledge of the country's situation

and the academic exploration of the wider field. Initially, studies from the migration field in

Greece, which is our target-country, will be presented in order to help us acquire a

comprehensive understanding so much of the academic background but also the country's

state. As we move on, we will present interdisciplinary-multidisciplinary academic attempts,

thus, a number of studies that have approached the matter of the media representation of

immigrants will be thoroughly discussed.

It is imperative to acknowledge that prior research conducted in the field has served as

a compass for the realisation of this thesis by providing us with an ample understanding of the

background as well as guiding us towards the selected methodology in order to produce

inferences of academic interest and possibly entry points for future research.

Overview & DiscussionEven though we observe a large and constant activity in the wider field of media and

migration, with regards to academic research that can function as the basis of our study,

unfortunately, interdisciplinary studies that combine these sectors have drawn little interest in

the case of Greece. Being a country in progressive recession for several years, the academia

has mostly approached ''practical'' issues, most of the times addressed with quantitative

methods, aiming at the tackling of the crisis and the identification of the problem, especially

since it is the state that mainly finances the researches. According to Stratoudaki H. (2008:9),

though, an absence of theoretical continuity as well as of methodological consistency can be

observed, even in studies that have been carried out on behalf of the same financier, hindering

the possibility of imprinting with clarity the progress of the situation of immigrants in the

Greek society. A reason for this discontinuity, apart from the dearth of the financial capital, is

also the notion of ''illegality'' surrounding the perception of the immigrants by the polity, by

the time of their entrance to the denial of their permit, a fact that has been an obstacle for the

researchers that have been willing to approach immigrants as part of their studies, especially

the ethnographic ones. (Stratoudaki H. 2008:10)

Scholars such as Stratoudaki (2008), Zografakis & Kasimis (2014) and Lianos (2004)

who concentrated in the investigation and criticism of the recent research field, suggest that

immigration issues come and go from the academic foreground depending on the political and

economic agenda of the state as well as the appearance of incidents and their severity over the

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course of the years.

According to Stratoudaki (2008) the basic thematic axes, id est the ones that seem

recurrent to a number of studies, regard the a) demographic characteristics, composition and

miscellaneous features of the incoming populations, b) the integration of immigrants in the

Greek market, state institutions and the rights of the immigrants, c) the transformation of

Greece from being a sending country to being a receiving one, d) border control issues and to

a much lesser extend e) the public opinion towards immigrants and their representation by the

Greek Media.

Initially, the first studies came to the foreground a few years after the first immigration

flow1, triggered by the collapse of the Central Eastern European communist regimes in 1989

and the political instability of neighbouring countries such as Albania and Bulgaria.

(Triantafillidou, A. & Marourof, M., 2009) These first attempts of approaching the issue

concentrated on the axis of identification of the incoming populations and their demographic

characteristics, as well as matters such as the human, social and cultural capital. Taking out of

the equation studies regarding repatriate Greeks, where information and knowledge were

more easily acquired, it was only after the Green Card (residence permit) issuing that

researchers could approach immigrants in order to conduct their studies, free from the

umbrella of ''illegality'' that was covering their situation after their entrance in the country.

Notwithstanding the popularity of such mainly quantitative studies, though, many gaps are

observed and many conceptual shifts are not addressed, indicating the need for further

research with methodological continuity and homogeneity.

Another appealing subject for the researchers has been the matter of economic

integration of the immigrants and the impact of their presence in the economic state of the

country. Driven by statistical data, many scholars have occupied themselves with studies

regarding the economic shift of the state and the impact of the new-comers to the employment

sector. Nevertheless, apart from the fact that such studies are dated mainly during the 1990's

and the early 2000's - thus contemporary research is rather scarce- according to Stratoudaki

(2008), certain irregularities have been observed regarding the samples and the methods of

categorisation, namely the absence of distinction between regular and irregular immigrants

and the clarification of the ''productive age'', in the majority of these researches.

What seems to be of a central importance to a number of scholars -mostly historians- ,

as well, is the reasons why Greece took a turn from being a sending country during the times

1 Even though there is a dramatic rise of immigrants in Greece due to return migration, this study only focuses on foreign nationals, perceived as 'aliens' and not the returning Greek diaspora.

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of political instability and warfare to being a receiving country despite the fact that its

economic status was not favourable or even solid.

On a different axis, we also find studies focusing on deportation, border issues as well

as the past and current immigration policies of Greece, especially at the time of the country's

incorporation in the EU and the inauguration of the FRONTEX regulations. Most of the

studies are addressing the challenges of border trespassing especially in the Aegean – in

islands such as Lesvos, Chios- as well as the river Evros at the northeastern part of Thrace, the

northern borders and the isle of Corfu.

Nevertheless, as mentioned above, little research has been conducted regarding the

sociological aspect of the phenomenon, much more the media representation of immigrants

and the public opinion towards them. (Triantafillidou, A. & Marourof, M., 2009) This,

though, does not mean that this sector has attracted zero attention. As mentioned in Lianos, T.

(2004), several studies within the sociology field, both quantitative and qualitative have

produced results that show (a) an increase in criminality with regards to immigration, (b) the

slow process of immigrants' integration in the Greek society as well as c) evidence of racism

and xenophobia and its negative consequences for both immigrants and Greeks.2 However,

there are numerous research gaps until nowadays with regards to social integration,

demographic development, housing, social security, immigrant contributions, the role of the

state etc. mainly because of the low or non-existent budget that academic institutions receive

from the state at the era of the financial recession.

Moving forward to research that contemplates on the public opinion towards

immigrants in Greece we come across studies conducted by Greek or foreign national

scholars, using different methodological frameworks, initiated from different perspectives,

and, thus, producing varying results and conclusions. Most of the studies, generated by

interviews, focus groups and questionnaires intended to show evidence of xenophobic

feelings or racism in the Greek society by focusing on specific groups of the population,

classified by social class, gender, economic class or even area of residence. (Stratoudaki, H.

2008) These studies shed light for the first time to the matter of the perception of “aliens” and

the “other” in the public opinion's collective mind. According to studies conducted by

Fragoudaki & Dragona (1997), Voulgaris (1995), Michalopoulou et al. (1998), Triantafillidou

& Marourof (2009) Greek society is characterised by mixed feelings with regards to

immigrants, depending on the target group, with a positive tendency as we move on to more 2 Although there is much talk over the phenomenon of racism in Greece, the evidence of the studies were not

sufficient in order to draw generalised inferences over the Greek society. Most of the studies are occupied with certain incidents and do not establish a holistic view. (Lianos, T. 2004:3)

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recent scholar attempts. This positive trend could be explained by contemplating on the initial

cultural, political and financial shock of the Greek population after the first immigration flow3

and the time that was given to the society in order to come to terms with the new situation.

However, with the onset of the economic crisis, xenophobia and racial violence

escalated substantially, while only presented in certain incidents by a few studies.

(Edwards,M.B., 2014) The reason behind scarce representation of this phenomenon,

according to Edwards M.B. (2014:12) is the official indifference, coated with the no formal

registering of racial violence incidents by the authorities as well as by the appearance of far-

right, extremist parties, most importantly L.A.O.S and Golden Dawn. The MNS report for

2012 reported 154 incidents over 2012, mostly physical violence carried out by organized

groups –many linked to Golden Dawn. Edwards' research also steps on an interesting quote

from the campaign speech of the then Prime Minister, A. Samaras, who urges the citizens to

vote for him in order to reclaim the Greek cities from the immigrants, addressing them all as

“illegal”.4

Following the influence of public discourse with regards to such matters, as

immigration, we have come across studies that investigate into the ways the Greek media

portray the immigrants that live in the country. Media's contribution in the construction and

interpretation of reality is an attractive theme that is constantly being explored by researchers

in a wide spectrum of fields. Research that has been done with regards to the Greek media

and the representation of immigrants is mostly dated from the early 1990's up to the first years

of the 21st century, thus, as mentioned above, little scholar activity is being observed recently.

Most of the studies are of qualitative nature, the majority of which follows the methodological

approach of discourse, content and text analysis; thereby, little inferences and almost no

generalisation can be drawn regarding the severity of the findings and their impact in a wider

scale. (Stratoudaki, M. 2008) During the first immigration flow, characterised by large

numbers of Albanian immigrants, Koiliari, A. (1997: 43) suggests a rather negative portrait of

the immigrants in the Greek press which, as she mentions, exposes the reader to ''a group of

people that appeared to be hopeless within the borders of their country and have come to

his/her own country in order to take advantage of, many times at his/her own expense, the

3 Already in 1994 a majority of Greek citizens (64%) felt that the country had reached its limits in terms of how many foreigners it could take.(Eurobarometre, EB42 in Triantafillidou and Marourof 2009: 57).

4 Extract from the then Prime Minister's speech: ''Greece today has become a centre for illegal immigrants. We must take back our cities, where the illegal trade in drugs, prostitution and counterfeit goods is booming. There are many diseases and I am not only speaking about Athens but elsewhere too.

8

opportunities for wealth and work.'' The recurring characteristics of the published articles,

according to the author, have shown a tendency of implying that (a) immigrants should be

considered as a threat to the cultural values of the society, (b) described as the opinion of the

societal majority, (c) more talk is taking place regarding the criminality of immigrants but less

or no talk concerning the problems that immigrants are facing and (d) matters of racism and

xenophobia are scarcely discussed.

What is more, another study of that period, prepared for the Council of Europe by

Spinelli et al. (1993, in Triantafillidou and Marourof, 2009) identified the themes below as the

principal focus of the Greek press coverage with regards to immigration:

the increase of unemployment in Greece as a result of immigration

the increase of criminality, mostly regarding thefts, drug trafficking and rapes

law enforcement with regards to border control and trespassing

the highlighting of ethnic origin of immigrants -namely Albanians at that time.

Even though these studies were conducted more than a decade ago, recent studies,

unfortunately, show very little shift in the political discourse and the media news-making.

Although a more balanced account of immigration and minority issues has been

accomplished, reporting on such matters is still ''couched in conspiracy theories and an overall

perception of national threat.'' (Triantafillidou, A. & Marourof, M., 2009: 54)

National and cultural purity presented as threatened -many times out of context- by

historical enemies, such as the Turks, or National traitors, such as the Macedonian minority,

but also third-party brokers, such as the EU, the US government or even NGOs, functions as a

distorted interpretation of reality, depicting the ''other'' as an ''enemy''. (ibid. 2009: 54-55) All

in all, the media coverage seems to be occupied with an alleged threat for the society rather

than presenting the sensitive position of the immigrant and the minority community.

Triantadillidou & Marourof have traced patterns of recurring references to immigrants

by the media that can be generally mentioned in the list below:

Illegal immigrants attempting to enter the Greek borders; seeking a better life or being

exploited by human traffickers.

Immigrant criminality and scapegoating of immigrants in published articles referring

to all sorts of criminal activity within the Greek borders.

In their study, though, Triantafillidou & Marourof have identified the first few,

tentative steps towards a more “humanitarian” media coverage that includes matters such as

immigrant integration, career success, honourable individual conduct with the nationals, as

9

well as immigrant students' integration in public schools; although there is also the antipodal

perspective of favouritism of minorities, the waste of the Greek nationals’ taxes to the

immigrants' education and the issues of flag-bearing in National parades by foreign nationals.5

Triantafillidou, being a zealous researcher in matters of media coverage and

immigration, along with her fellows participating in the project MEDIVA (2011) -standing for

Media for Diversity and Migrant Integration- notes that ''media outlets do not cover

immigration as a topic continuously. Instead, they tend to flood the media space with instant

coverage when something dramatic happens but quickly drop the subject at “normal” times,

thus prompting the public to think of immigration in the problem /conflict /difficulty

framework.'' (Triantadillidou, A. et al. 2011: 6) This statement is in harmony with Van Dijk's

opinion that media's negative representation of immigrants is highly reflected on numerous

news reports while subjects such as immigrants and minorities' rights are much less frequent

in the media. (1988:172)

Another study worth mentioning was carried out by Tsaliki, L.(2010), lecturer of the

Communication and Media Studies Faculty, on behalf of the University of Athens. True to

Van Dijk's statement that ethnic minorities are -more often than not- represented in the press

associated with criminal action, violence and problematic immigration (1991), the survey uses

a quantitative approach in order to investigate the media representation of Albanian

immigrants. With regards to this approach, there is a special focus on the method of content

analysis on three mainstream national newspapers, id est Ta Nea, I Kathimerini and I Avgi and

four mainstream national TV channels, namely MEGA, ANTENNA, NET and STAR.(Tsaliki,

L. 2010) The inferences of this study have shown that media coverage of migration depends

highly on the political agenda. There are periods of time that the Albanian minority seemed to

be non-existent, which indicates a relative absence of the minority towards public discourse

and decision-making. (ibid. 2010: 102) What is more, with regards to framing issues, the

survey showed that, especially in the TV, Albanian-related pieces were presented in a

conflictual frame. On the other hand, as presented in aforementioned studies, tendencies

towards a more positive representation of the minorities are currently more apparent than in

the past, as the findings of Tsaliki's study clearly imply.

Fani Kountouris (2008), a prominent scholar of the National Centre for Social

Research has also occupied herself with the image-making of the immigrants in the Greek

press, in a longitudinal research, focusing on publications of the best-selling newspaper Ta 5 National parades are taking place twice a year, on October 28th and March 25th, as a part of the National

Celebrations. As a custom, the student with the highest grades of the class is to bear the flag, according to the Greek Ministry of Religion, Education and Lifelong Learning.

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Nea from 1950 up until 2005. The study is conducted in a quantitative approach, looking into

the role of the press in the social construction of the immigrant. Fani Kountouris discusses

thoroughly the multifaceted image of the immigrant in the course of time while scrutinising a

fair amount of articles published in the specific newspaper. In spite of the detailed attempted,

though, one has to consider that little or no generalisations can be made by investigating a

single medium.

In the sake of recapitulation, matters of Immigration, Representation and the role of

Media in the Public Discourse have been of central focus to scholars of the wider spectrum of

the academia, with regards to the case of Greece. Immigration as a concept, especially, has

attracted many researchers, following a variety of methods, approaches and perspectives in

their investigations. Unfortunately, and apart from combinations of approaches and

methodology, little has been done with regards to interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary studies

that aspire to connect the notions of immigration with the representation and the media

coverage lately. What is more, even though a certain scholar activity has been observed during

the 1990's and the early years of the 21st century, there seems to be little interest in such

matters nowadays, especially from a qualitative perspective, despite the fact that Greece is

still an attractive destination for immigrants and the economic status of the country has not

changed, at least positively.

On the other hand, the prior research field and its findings constitute the basis for our

research since it gives us an overview of what has been done in the past, what the trends and

the recurring patterns are and where we need to draw our attention in order to provide the

academia with a fruitful and significant contribution.

3. Theoretical Framework

Stereotypes and representation: ''we'', the ''others'' and the media

Media offer a cognitive framework that influences the intake and understanding of the

social reality. They are comprising a symbolic environment within which individual values,

attitudes and behaviours are being constantly reformed. The attempt to research the contents

of the press, especially from a qualitative perspective, includes scanning the material for

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negative definitions of the ''other'', in this case the immigrant. As Christofer Dornan notes ''in

the era of the postmodern, self-referential media society, what matters is not the actions taken

but in what ways these actions appear in the media field'' (Dornan,C. In Tsekeris, Ch. 2008:

29). Nonetheless, the messages that can be conveyed by a text are not always on the surface,

or directly offered to the reader. A text conveys messages within its lines or between them, as

described by Hall et al. (1997) referring to the concept of representation. In a wider, cultural

level, meanings are decoded and transmitted with the creation of ''signs''; the creation of

mental conceptions and the materialisation of them. (Saussure in Hall et al. 1997:38) By the

time of the combination of these signs, representation has moved from the level of

''description'' to the level of ''interpretation of a social ideology'', achieving a close

communication with culture, knowledge and ideology, as Barthes indicates. (1967 ibid.

1997:39) It is imperative, though, to distinguish among the different manifestations of

representation. According to Hall et al. (ibid. 1997) representation can be a) reflective, which

means that a message that already exists in the social and political environment is being

transmitted by a medium, b) intentional, when the message simply expresses the author's -

speaker's opinion or c) constructionist, when the language of a message is used in such a way

that it formulates a meaning directly or indirectly. On the other hand, taking into account that

decoding a meaning presupposes an active procedure of interpretation of language, which can

be done over the course of time, we argue that depending on circumstantial factors, such as

the socio-political discourse of a period, language can be imprecise. ''The meaning we take, as

viewers, readers or audiences, is never exactly the meaning which has been given by the

speaker or writer or by other viewers.'' (Hall et al. 1997:33)

However, apart from the language itself, meanings can be found in the morphology of

a text, the use of punctuation, even in the elements that are not presented at all by the author.

One could discover the manifestation of stereotyping attitudes, prejudices and social

discrimination even by informal means. ''The representation of a racist discourse can be

achieved even in texts that militate against it'' (Konstantinidou, 2001:61) or even be expressed

rhetorically. According to Konstantinidou (2001:61) in order for both the signifying practices

to co-exist, one has to adopt either a passive-aggressive attitude by ''balancing'' the inter-

contradicting opinions – in that way an ''objective'' approach is achieved- or draw clear lines

between the two in the process of pagination.

Referring to stereotypes, it is a concept attributed to Lippman, W. who formed it in

1962 describing it as ''images inside our minds''. Stereotypes are cognitive constructs that

form opinions and attitudes towards a social group and comprise an oversimplified way of its

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depiction. According to Fahmy (2004), most of the times these groups fit only one category.

By over-generalising one single characteristic of an individual and attributing it to a whole

social group, as Lester (1997) states, stereotyping is the best shortcut for someone to be

described collectively rather than individually. Stereotypes are usually based upon reality;

notwithstanding, they present only a fraction of it, in a distorted or negative sense, for the

majority of times. According to the same author (ibid., 1997) the media act stereotypically

because humanity acts in the same way by attempting to categorise its environment. The

media tend to canalise individuals that belong in a different social group than ''us'', the

majority, in specific categories; such examples are the categories of criminality, sports,

cultural customs etc. that tend to materialise in the cases of minority, asylum seekers or

merely immigrant groups. Stereotyping in the media reflects the perception of the mainstream

ideology regarding the ''we'' and the ''other'', the socially ''acceptable'' or the ''unacceptable''.

As Van Dijk (1987) underlines, forming an ideology is not an individual procedure, but rather

the reflection of the social, economic and political standpoint of a society. Following this

conception, the mainstream media news-making adopts the aforementioned stereotypes in

order to keep up with the societal status; a fact that serves to maintain certain ideologies as

well as cultivate them further. (Gohram: 2006) The establishment of these stereotypes is what

facilitates social discrimination, since it offers a basis upon which societies are able to define

''diversity''. Diversity, in the meaning of otherness, is a term encountered in Aristotle's work

Supernatural, in the sense of ''race difference or substantial difference''. (Liddell et al. 2006)

According to the theory of social identity, the ''we'' is compared to the ''other'' in such a

manner that the ''we'' is always projected as ''better'' or ''acceptable''. Comparing the theories

of social identity and stereotyping, we tend to attach certain characteristics to individuals that

do not belong in ''we'', so that whenever we receive a negative behaviour from an ''outsider'',

we perceive this negativity as an intrinsic characteristic of the outsider's group. (Gohram,

2006) As often encountered in the press, diversity, in the sense of the ''otherness'', can be

intertwined with the race or the national identity. According to Maloutas et al. (2007: 65-66)

the description of the bisector between the ''identity'' and the ''otherness'' is inevitably

developed in national terms, a perception that persists, even though it clashes with multiple

supranational definitions of identity in the era of cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism and

diversity. As Balibar underlines (1991), even though identity is formed individually, it is still

inextricably interwoven with the societal values, behaviourisms and collective symbols.

''Language and race suggests that the national character is existent in the soul of the people.''

(ibid. 1991:144) Therefore, the composition of one's national identity contains in its

13

''ingredients'' the concepts of the ''different'', the ''other'' and the ''alien'', as it is expressed in

the political culture of a country, which although ever-shaping, it comprises a timeless entity.

(ibid. 1991:148)

As far as the Greek national identity is regarded, many scholars agree that it is based

upon the idea of the cultural and religious homogeneity. (Demertzis N., 1994) (Mouzelis, N.

1994) (Fragoudaki, A. et al, 1997) (Tsoukalas, K., 1987) ''Greek political culture seems to be

‘‘exclusive’’, mainly because of the limited nature of the political discourse and activity,

which has obstructed the reformation of new, alternative collective identities''

(Tsagarousianou, 1994:338); a fact that is noticeably reflected in the Greek media and their

formation. The dichotomy of the ''national self'' and the ''otherness'' appears only after the

occurrence of the first migration flow, during the 90's, when the immigrants and other

minorities enflesh the ''alien''. (Troumpeta, 2000) According to Maloutas et al. (2007) after

Greece's integration in the EU, Greek national identity ''absorbs'' the characteristic of

belonging in the ''western world'', attributing in that way a sense of inferiority to the notion of

the ''other'', who is clearly invading in order to seek a better life within the country. By

juxtaposing the mainstream Greek identity with the identity of the others, a certain

''Greekness'' is forming. The characteristics given to the identity of the others, though, are not

always true or standing as they are formed by ''our'' interpretation of the ''other'' under specific

circumstances that, as mentioned above, create a certain imprecision. Under this notion, one

could conclude that an external definition of one's identity could end up to be misleading

because of the misinterpretation of the other's identity.

These nexus of ''superiority'' and ''inferiority'', ''otherness'' and ''identity'', ''we'' and

''they'' are, formally or informally, shaped and formed by their representation in the media and

will constitute the central axis of our dissertation.

4. Research Strategy & Methodology / Delimitations & Material Selection

4.1 Research Strategy

This dissertation will be the product of a qualitative, case-oriented study. One could

argue that a quantitative study employing content analysis, instead, would have been suitable,

in order to achieve a holistic picture of the phenomenon by investigating certain variable

14

appearances in the wider media field. On the other hand, such an attempt was deemed to be

more time-consuming, comparing to the time we had available, as well as it would not focus

on the matter through the perspective that the author was seeking to shed light into. Our aim is

to investigate into the mainstream press for patterns and keywords that serve a certain image-

making or create certain correlations between the immigrants and the phenomena, with the aid

of the social discourses in the specific time frame of the research.

For the purposes of this study, we intend to use primary material, namely articles

extracted from the mainstream, best-selling newspapers of the Greek press that handle the

matter of immigration. Nonetheless, because it is our intention to set off for our investigation

by giving an ample background of the media images, so that the reader will be informed of

the variability of the phenomenon in the course of the years, secondary material, found in

prior research, will be employed as well, since articles dated before 2000 are not yet

digitalised; a fact that limits our study, since we are not able to visit the media archives

ourselves in the country of their origin.

4.2 Methodology & Delimitations

The approach of this research, its theoretical background notwithstanding, will be

inductive. It is noted that “inductive reasoning is often referred to as a “bottom-up” approach

to knowing, in which the researcher uses observations to build an abstraction or to describe a

picture of the phenomenon that is being studied” (Lodico et al, 2010:10). All conclusions will

be driven by the gathered material, as presented in the course of this thesis. As we do not seek

to test a hypothesis, we intend to observe the phenomenon of negative image-making and the

representation of the immigrants in the news-making of the mainstream Greek press and draw

our inferences regarding any patterns or common practices noticed after the material analysis

has taken place. As stated by Goddard and Melville (2004) an inductive approach starts with

the observations while the inferences are formulated towards the end of the research and as a

result of observations. Neuman (2003) affirms inductive research to commence with detailed

observations of a system or a phenomenon, which eventually moves towards more abstract

generalisations and ideas. Even though, we rely on the material analysis in order to rationalise

our conclusions, therefore the core of our investigation depends on the content of the selected

articles, our perspective is driven by concepts found in our theoretical framework.

In order for our study to be valid and reliable we are going to deploy, what in the

15

journalist's language is called, the 'inverted pyramid system', which we will use, though, in a

retroductive6 way in order to serve the purposes of our research. This means that, since our

goal is to interrogate the concept of immigration's negative imaging in the Greek press

(general phenomenon), we attempt to dive into the analysis of certain axes of the

phenomenon, as presented in numerous articles (specific samples) of the press, in order to,

eventually, draw our conclusions, travelling back to our initial entry point. Following 'the

inverted pyramid system' we allow ourselves to move through different grades of the scale of

generality, following the syllogism general-specific-general.

In order to clarify the strategy depicted in the scheme above, we need to elaborate on the

classification of our material. Having studied researches conducted by media and social

sciences scholars (which were presented in the chapter: Prior Research), we identified the

most recurring themes in media news-making regarding immigrants and their negative

representation in the Greek press. Following their steps, in order to obtain a representative

proportion of the phenomenon we wish to investigate, we have selected three of the most

recurring axes to extract articles from:

Immigrants and the impact on unemployment rates.

Immigrants bearing national symbols- the case of the Greek flag in national parades.6 A term used by Blaikie (2000) to describe the research carried out in stages, travelling back and forth from

theories to empirics and from the general field to signled-out cases, in order to make inferences regarding the general phenomenon.

16

Immigrants and their involvement in criminal acts.

These 3 axes will be presented one by one, accompanied by a number of articles outlining the

issue, each comprising a different section in the material analysis chapter.

Within these articles we aspire to investigate patterns of representations by tracing words or

phrases of common use that illustrate and convey a certain portrait of immigrants, true to the

strategy of the text analysis. Text analysis is a method widely used in the social sciences and

humanities in order to ''make inferences by systematically identifying special characteristics

of the messages'' (Holstie, 1968: 608) lying in artifacts of social communication, such as texts,

images, recordings and every other means that can be transformed into text. By using the

method of text analysis, a researcher is able to go through large amounts of texts in an attempt

to categorise the information given and identify patterns of key words that are conveying

certain messages.

Even though, text analysis is a key-tool for our media investigation, we find it

insufficient to describe and explain the phenomenon of the negative imaging of immigration

in the Greek press without correlating the article with the wider social discourse. It is for this

reason that we endeavour to discuss the social environment and political entourage of the

articles at the time of their publication, aiming at a holistic analysis of the phenomenon. What

is more, key-concepts deriving from our theoretical background, such us the dichotomies of

the ''identity'' and the ''otherness'', ''we'' and ''they'', ''superiority'' and ''inferiority'' and the

stereotyping procedure will comprise the core of our material analysis and will be accordingly

highlighted. Nevertheless, true to Hall's statements -as they are mentioned in the Theoretical

Framework chapter-, we will also be looking at the writing style of the articles as meanings

may be found cloaked between the lines of a text.

4.3 Resource Selection

The criteria of selection of the articles that we will be using during our analysis are:

I. The geographical reach of the press media, since it is imperative that the newspapers

were within reach for the whole population. Matters such as migration seem to have

different meanings, impacts and generate different reactions, geographically speaking.

The local press and the local public opinion in the mainland shows deviations when

compared to the capital press or the island press. Aiming for the mainstream image,

we are selecting articles from the newspapers that are (were) being published

17

throughout the land.

II. The percentage of the sales of the selected press media in order to ensure that they

were available to the largest possible proportion of the Greek citizens. Since it is our

goal to present the mainstream portrayal, we intend to use articles from the best-

selling newspapers during the period of each incident.

III. The nature of the content of the articles. So as not to emphasise merely on extreme

cases, we have selected material that is not only consisted of extreme actions that call

for extreme public reactions such as hideous crimes, rapes etc. This is why during the

course of our analysis, we will present the reader with a section concerning a)

immigrants and the bearing of Greek national symbols (e.g the Greek flag in national

parades.) b) immigrants and 'underground economy' that influences unemployment

rates and c) immigrants and their involvement in criminality.

IV. The time frame of the articles will attempt to cover a variety of incidents taking as a

point of departure the peak of the immigration flow in the 90's and moving towards

contemporary incidents.

V. The political agenda of the selected newspapers. Even though the truth is that the vast

majority of the Greek media is held by only a handful of corporations, we shall

endeavour to provide the reader with articles extracted by the mainstream newspapers

on the market whose political affiliations vary between the central-left to the central-

right.

VI. The readability of the articles, the publicity of the cases and the characteristics of the

articles. We have encountered numerous articles fitted for our research, being in the

classification of the three recurring themes we have selected. Nonetheless, the nature

of the articles and the publicity they triggered have played a major role in the process

of the selection. We have chosen to analyse articles from cases that have energised

discourses, so much in the Greek media as well as the social media at the time of their

occurrence, when applicable. What is more, while collecting our material, we had to

carefully choose among numerous articles of the same newspaper discussing the same

issue. In order to make the best out of each case and gather as much material for our

analysis as possible, we have selected articles whose body text would provide us with

a large amount of information. The list of all the articles employed for our analysis

will be presented below.

18

4.4 Media Outlets

As stated above, the best-selling newspapers (as a secondary material or in their digital

form) have been selected as our material to be analysed. Namely, we shall extract articles by

Ta Nea, To Vima, To Ethnos, I Eleutherotipia, I Kathimerini and To Proto Thema. Ta Nea and

To Vima are considered of the first and most 'long-lived' newspapers in Greece, publish by

DOL (Dimosiografikos Omilos Labraki), “the biggest company in the Greek media industry”

(www.dol.gr). I Eleutherotipia, is one of the best-selling evening newspapers and even though

the company had to shut down for a few years due to financial issues, its online site remain

intact and the newspaper went back on the market on January 2013. To Proto Thema has been

the best-selling Sunday newspaper for years, namely since it was founded in 2005. I

Kathimerini is also a popular newspaper, first published in 1919, holding a large percentage of

the Greek readers especially in its weekend version, I Kathimerini tis Kiriakis.

4.5 List of the selected articles (in order of appearance)

Title of the Article Newspaper Date of Publication JournalistUnemployment: An open wound. Foreigners in job positions unwanted by the locals.

Ta Nea 01/11/85 -

The aliens of Western Athens: Polish, Indians and Pakistanis find jobs more easily and are better rewarded.

Ta Nea 08/05/95 -

Rapid increase of the black Ta Nea 17/11/95 -

19

labour..One out of four wage earners is an illegal immigrant

The big and unsolved problems call for pressing solutions

Eleutherotypia 21/09/09 Manolis Drettakis

1.000.000 unemployed in Greece and still counting

Kiriakatiki Eleutherotypia

07/02/10 Dimitra Kadda

Immigration and Unemployment

I Kathimerini 22/10/13 -

Oscure economy, black market and illegal immigrants are over the roof

I Kathimerini 06/06/13 -

Even the Filipinos are abandoning Greece

To Proto Thema 23/12/14 Katerina Faka

Self-explanatory thoughts about the immigration problem

To Proto Thema 16/04/15 Politis Ioannis

Who must carry the flag... I Kathimerini 22/10/04 Eleni Bitsika

Alien students as flag bearers I Kathimerini 26/10/08 Diamanti Ioanna

An Albanian child bears the flag-The Greeks abstain from the parade

I Kathimerini 27/10/01

Indignant parents of the elementary schools don't want Albanian nationals to carry the Greek flag

Eleutherotypia 21/03/13 Papavasiliou Nikos

The flag of the parade bifurcated the town of Kalives in Poligiros

To Vima 15/03/09 Bitsika Panagiota

We don't want the Albanian girl as flag bearer, we will call the Golden Dawn

To Proto Thema 30/10/12 -

They killed him while he was taking his wife to the hospital to bear their child

To Proto Thema 10/05/11 -

Life sentence for the Afghans for the brutal murder of M. Kantaris

To Proto Thema 25/09/12 Kokkali Vassiliki

The two Afghans confessed the murder of M. Kantaris

To Vima 19/05/11 Labropoulos Vasilis

The murder of an elderly woman in Exarheia has been resolved

To Vima 30/05/14 -

The thieves with the irons To Proto Thema 28/12/14 Popotas Dimitris

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cause fear and terror: All the activity of the Georgian torturers

Life sentence for the monster will not heal Myrto's wounds

To Proto Thema 28/01/14 Karathanou Eleni

Alert for the influx of Jihadists I Kathimerini 26/04/15 Souliotis Ioannis

They killed him for 120 Euros To Ethnos 19/05/11 -

5. Material Analysis

5.1 Immigrants and the impact on unemployment rates.

In this chapter the immigrants’ alleged involvement with the unemployment rates and

the 'underground economy' that lead to their increase, will be thoroughly analysed. We have

decided to start our material analysis by introducing this part of the negative imaging triptych

first because it seems to be the first theme that occupied the Greek press as soon as the first

migration flow reached the country.

As mentioned by Fani Kountouris (2008) in her own research regarding immigrant

images in the press from 1950 until 2005, the first article to be occupied with immigration

matters was published in the newspaper Ta Nea in 1985, under the title ''Unemployment: an

open wound. Foreigners in job positions unwanted by the locals''. Right from the very first

words of this article the reader follows the thread of the journalist's thoughts ''unemployment'',

''wound'', ''foreigners'', followed by the vivid subtitle ''Alien workers occupy Greek job

positions.'' (Ta Nea, 1/11/1985 in Kountouris, F. 2008) In the same article, we read that the

source of this evidence is the major general of the immigration department, a public figure in

a significant position, who has provided the journalist with statistics, regarding the increasing

employment of foreign workers in comparison with the free vacancies left for the Greek

working hands. The language used in this article, especially the dramatisation sketching the

title and subtitle, sets the picture straight for the reader; foreigner's integration in the Greek

market is presented as a ''wound'', therefore conveying a message of a problematic situation,

and the representation of the 'other' against 'us' is evident through the choice of words

21

''aliens/foreigners'', ''coloured'', ''Greeks'', ''locals''.

Ten years after the first reportage, we encounter another article by the same newspaper

entitled: ''the aliens of western Athens: Polish, Indians and Pakistanis find jobs more easily

and are better rewarded.'' (Ta Nea 08/05/1995 in Kountouris, F. 2008) In this article, we read

three subtitles, regarding mass influxes of illegal immigrants and 'underground economy'

infesting the country's economy. Indicatively, one of the subtitles reads ''It is all underground

economy's fault!''. Reading through the article we spot phrases such as ''illegal migration'',

''underground economy'' and ''criminality''. As mentioned by the creator of this article, his

sources were immigrants themselves as well as the General Confederation of Labour in

Greece. What is worth-mentioning about this article and the transition of the newspaper's

arthrography during these ten years, is the selection of the sources as well as the consequences

of the phenomenon. In the first attempt, the source commenting on immigration had been a

representative of a public authority and his views regarding the job market whereas in the

second article we witness the involvement of social and political partners as well as the

immigrants themselves concerning the causes and the consequences of the phenomenon in the

wider social environment. A few months later, we encounter another article of the same

newspaper under the title ''Rapid increase of the black labour.. One out of four wage-earners is

an illegal immigrant.'' (Ta Nea 17/11/1995 in Kountouris F. 2008) Unlike the other two

articles, in this one the main idea of the text is already sketched in the title. This article

indicates, at the era of the concerns about unemployment's increasing rates, that 25% of the

working force in Greece is consisted of illegal immigrants. While the title is so abruptly

written, there is unclear differentiation between economy and underground economy nor

illegal immigrants and immigrants. Additionally, throughout the article we only encounter the

term ''illegal'' instead of ''irregular'' or any other term that might come across as a milder

connotation.

Moving on to more current publications in 2009, Manolis Drettakis, journalist and

former chairman of the Greek parliament, in his article ''the big and unsolved problems call

for pressing solutions'' on behalf of Eleutherotypia, comments on the programmes and plans

that the running parties make just a few months before the national elections. Amongst the

problems that call for immediate actions, that we can find numbered in the text, we read:

''corruption, tax evasion, government loans and the financial deficit [...] the immigrants, the

relations between Greece and Turkey...''. In this article the layout along with the word

selection is of great importance. All the 'hot' problems of the country are numbered and

roughly described in little paragraphs. Each paragraph commences by the use of the name of

22

each issue, e.g Corruption. Out of the eight major issues ''The immigrants'' is one. It is

important to notice that even though the journalist continues by commenting on the

insufficient migration policies of the state, the starting phrase of the paragraph acknowledges

the immigrants as the problem. The rhetoric of the ''we'' and the ''other'' is evident in the next

sentences regarding the issue of immigration since the journalist mentions that ''their'' (the

immigrants') children will at some point be integrated in the Greek society among the ''Greek

children''. In order to present the reader with the social discourse and the events of that time, it

is imperative to shed light to the background as well: The years 2008-2009, Greece officially

declared that is heading towards bankruptcy and the first moves in order to acquire its first

loan from the European Central Bank are set in motion. During these times, the whole

national press, as well as the public, is turned towards matters of the national economy, the

causes, the consequences and the future plans. At the same time national elections are due on

October 2009, a month after this article is written. Taken these facts into account, we realise

that the electoral campaigns of the parties along with the press are focused on matters of high

importance, especially when it comes to the economy of the state that is collapsing day by

day.

One year later, and while the press is still covered in articles regarding the national

economy, we find Dimitra's Kadda article, in the Sunday version of Eleutherotipia, under the

title '' One million unemployed in Greece and still counting''. The title as well as the whole

text body informs the readers about the ''actual'' situation of the unemployment rates in

Greece, since as the journalist states, ''in reality, the unemployment is reaching double the

rates that the statistics show, since they ''bypass'' the truth'' (subtitle of the article). In the

conclusion of the article, and while we are presented with various views and statistics, we

come across the ''wound'' of ''black economy'' consisted of ''700.000 workers, on conservative

measurements, the majority of which are immigrants'' that contributes to the ill situation of the

employment sector.(I Kiriakatiki Eleutherotypia, 07/02/2010) Looking at the wording of this

text, once more we encounter the word ''wound'' which is popular in the Greek arthrography,

when it comes to vividly present a problematic notion or phenomenon. In this case,

immigrants play their role in the economy's disintegration and they seem to appear in this

context in all of the above articles, as well as the ones to follow in our analysis. This

relationship between the obscure economy and the immigrants seems to be a recurring

phenomenon in the Greek press, whether the articles’ main theme is immigration or matters

that orbit around the country's economic situation. Apart from the selection of words, though,

an interesting fact is the appearance of the immigrants and their contribution to the

23

unemployment rates even when the article is aimed at a different subject. ''Immigration and

Unemployment'' is an article published in I Kathimerini in 2013. Even though the title seems

to allude to another association of the immigrants with the economic decay, the journalist is

keener on ''attacking'' the current political regime of the Greek market. While at it, though, we

encounter the phrase ''we have as many unemployed Greeks as illegal immigrants'' which

combined with the article's title leads us to contemplate on whether the job positions that

immigrants have in the obscure market (being illegal immigrants, it would not be possible for

them to be employed within the legal framework) are positions that the unemployed Greeks

have been deprived of. Following the arthrography of the same newspaper we find the article

''Obscure economy, Black market and illegal immigrants are over the roof'' (06/06/2013)

which sets the scene with statistics regarding the matters described in the title. In the first

sentences of the main text we find the phrase ''our country holds the negative first position in

illegal immigrants engaged in the market with a percentage of 4.4%'' followed by other

evidence of how the obscure and black market contribute to the paralysation of the country's

economy. At this stage, an interesting point to be made regarding the use of language is the

different phrasing of ''illegal immigrants'' in the Greek language. During the 1980's and the

1990's we came across the use of lathrometanastis which in Greek bears the notion of

clandestine/contraband whereas in more current publications we observe a shift to the use of

the word paranomos which means illegal. In none of the cases above, though, have we

encountered the phraseology paratypos, meaning irregular.

While looking into the publications of the newspaper To Proto Thema, we come across

a different, more sarcastic presentation of the reality and the “other”. On 23/12/2014 Katerina

Faka, in her article ''Even the Filipinos are abandoning Greece.'' (‘‘Disappointed by the

country's situation” is the supplementary title) is describing the current situation of Filipino

immigrants in Greece and the reasons they decide to either immigrate further or repatriate. In

order to look into the article in detail, we ought to start from its picture.

24

The picture shows a group of Filipino adolescents possibly ready to play a kind of sport in a

public court or playground. The young man at the front of the picture is wearing a T-shirt that

reads ''Hellas'' and a stamp of the Greek flag. This raises the connotation of foreign nationals

bearing the national symbols, which is a theme that will be discussed thoroughly in the next

chapter of our analysis. Turning our attention to the title and subtitle of the article we come

across the word akoma , which means even that carries a certain tone of sarcasm if not a

latent message of the inferiority of the immigrants situation in comparison with the Greek

people that immigrate at the same time because of the same reasons. It is imperative to

underline that in 2014, Triantafillidou conducted a research according to which the Greek

population that immigrates in popular destinations (except the U.S) has been increased by

12.4%, id est 60.227 people. (Triantafillidou, 2014) The use of the word even in this context

presents the self-explanatory move of immigrants to further migrate or its little importance

when compared to the decision of the Greek population to flee because of the unemployment

rates and the low income. Furthermore, the article's main body commences with a quote by

the chairman of Greek Association of the Work Recruitment Agencies Owners that reads as

follows: ''They are leaving because we pampered them. No foreigner was earning 1.300

euros.'' In this quote the stereotyping and the rhetoric of ''we'' and ''they'' are evident via the

use of they and foreigner but as well through the word pampered which expresses a certain

notion of magnanimity by the Greek employers who sheltered these Filipinos. The article

describes the reasons why Filipinos are leaving Greece, mainly because of the decrease of

their salaries, while emphasising on the amount of money they used to earn or currently

demand, or their concordant disappointment which leads them to immigrate further. The

article states that the Filipinos, the majority of which were mainly employed in indoor

25

workplaces (usually as maids), used to earn 1.300 euros per month and still demand at least

1.000 euros or decline job positions for 800 euros; meanwhile ''Greek women are queuing for

these kinds of jobs, which are not pejorative anymore and instead are being treated as

opportunities for their livelihood, even though they are Bachelor's graduates.'' (To Proto

Thema, 23/12/2014) The message conveyed in these lines creates an image of a rather unfair

competition between ''us'' (the Greeks) and ''them'' (the Filipinos /foreigners) as well as a

provocative representation of the immigrants as ungrateful while in the background of this

event the minimum wage in Greece is defined at the 511 euros per month (net) and the theme

of the Greek brain drain is emerging and expanding at the Greek media.

Finally, there are also the opinion articles that are hosted by the newspapers and their

online sites that set a certain landscape. Such an article is the ''Self-explanatory thoughts about

the immigration problem'', written by Politis G. on behalf of the newspaper To Proto Thema

less than a month ago. In this article, the writer appears to be somewhere in between

sympathising with the immigrants as well as the locals for the state of their country and their

own individual one. Quoting from the text: ''The sympathy, term that derives from the word

sym-pasho, meaning suffer along with the other, is self-evident when it comes to people that

have left their homelands in search of a better life. So is the recognition that the West is

responsible for the geopolitical 'games' in their territories and the financial burden on the

Third World.'' (To Proto Thema, 16/04/2015) This passive-aggressive attempt of the writer is

reflected in the whole body of the text where the reader is presented with the image of Greece

being amongst other Western countries (applying a concealed meaning of a modernised

country, superior to the ones of the Third World) while at the same time being a small country

with a decreasing GDP that should not bear the responsibility as other western countries

should for the woes of the countries that immigrants come from. ''Its hospitality, without

having any moral obligation, is leading the country to impoverishment'' being the last

sentence of the article, it is evident that a small western country (supremacy) is sickening

itself because of its good will and because it is falsely responsible for the poor fate of people

from the Third World (inferiority).

In order to summarise, in this section we analysed the mainstream press coverage of

immigrants and their impact in unemployment rates and the underground economy. An

interesting fact about this theme is that it appeared to be the first to occupy the Greek press as

soon as the first migration flow entered the country. In most of the articles selected, we

encounter the correlation between immigrants and the obscure economy that pests the country,

26

deteriorating the health of the economy system while creating employment gaps and taxing

issues. Immigration is presented as a problematic situation and the press is mostly focusing on

the nationality of the immigrants or their share in the market rather than the immigration

policies of the government and the measures taken. The words ''wound'' and ''problem''

intensify this concept while ''they'', ''immigrants'', ''aliens'', ''foreigners'' against, ''locals'',

''Greek working hands'' and ''our own'' project the rhetoric of the ''we'' against the ''other''.

When the financial crisis is officially declared, articles published regarding unemployment

still mention immigrants in an attempt to compare their influence to the consequences of the

recession. What is more, we encounter journalists' attempts to address the ungratefulness of

the immigrants fleeing the country in a time of need, because they do not earn as much as they

used to, adding up to the rhetoric of racial superiority/inferiority, since they treat the matter by

comparing the magnanimous Greeks versus the in need, though unthankful, Filipinos.

5.2 Immigrants bearing national symbols- the case of the Greek flag in National

parades.

In this part of our analysis, we will look into the matter of flag-bearing in national

parades during the national celebrations on the 25th of March and the 28th of October. In order

to set the picture for the reader, before going into the media analysis, we should briefly

describe the context of this discourse.

In Greece, there are two national celebrations. The first one (on the 25th of March)

originates from the revolution of 1821 that led to the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire. The

other one (on the 28th of October) has its roots on the Greek-Italian war in 1940, the then

government's refusal to surrender and, eventually, the victory of the Greek army. Ever since,

Greece's total independence and the formation of the Constitution , these two days have been

named as national celebrations and it is on these days that students from every school along

with the army force hold parades in every town of the mainland and the islands of the country,

in a manner of national pride. According to the laws of the Ministry of Education in Greece

(Αρ.Πρωτ.Φ.10/610/118443/Γ1/14-10-2011/ΥΠΔΒΜΘ ), regarding student parades on these

days, ''the student having the best grades in the school is the one that is elected as the flag-

27

bearer of the school''.7

National parades have always reached the news as a matter of national pride and

historic revival until incidents, where the best-graded student of a school was a foreigner,

occurred. The thought of someone non-Greek bearing such a national symbol as the flag in

parades whose whole meaning relied on the national pride was non-existent, only until after

immigrants from the first migration flow got established in the country, formed their own

families, found ways to make a living and, eventually, sent their children to Greek schools.

These incidents attracted even more publicity since the first immigrant children to meet the

requirements of bearing the flag were Albanian nationals. Their ethnicity, in this case, ignited

the discourse even more since it brought in the foreground a paradox. During the Greek-

Italian war in 1940, the Greek army had fought against the Italian forces that had, at that time,

allied with the Albanians. Following this syllogism, the public opinion and the press alongside

had to deal with a dilemma; the law dictates that the student with the best grades should bear

the flag, regardless of their nationality. But, can a foreign national bear the national symbol in

a parade of national pride even though his nationality excludes him from such an event?

According to an article in the newspaper To Vima (05/11/2000) there had been several people

in charge that tried to find a solution to this problematic situation; teachers primed Greek

students with higher grades in order for such incidents not to occur or had to put on a fight

with parents' associations and teachers' councils over the matter or even elected politicians

questioned the law and asked for its reformation.

This situation has been presented in various versions as a recurring theme in the Greek

press, ever since an incident or multiple incidents occurred twice a year, in a way of

distinguishing between ''the Greek nation'' and ''the others''. For the purposes of our analysis,

we have selected reportages and opinion articles describing this theme.

Eleni Bitsika, a journalist on behalf of I kathimerini, published her article, under the

title ''Who must carry the flag...''(22/10/2004) in a rather prominent space of the newspaper

(the permanent columns8) in an attempt to describe the phenomenon and express her views. In

the opening of the text we read: ''every year the debate flares up over this controversial issue'',

identifying this matter as a recurring theme in news-making, immediately followed by a

rhetoric question: ''Should an Albanian boy or girl or any other alien student, since they

receive Greek education and they have the highest grades, be the flag-bearers on the day of

the school parade?'' Even though this question appears to be identical to the aforementioned 7 Aditional information regarding the grading and classification system of the Greek education system have

been ommitted.8 Permanent columns in I Kathimerini cover 1/2 page of the newspaper sheet.

28

dilemma, we must spot the emphasis on the Albanian nationals. The author singles out the

Albanians before moving on to ''any other alien students''. This is not only evidence of the

''we'' and ''they'' rhetoric that is inextricably interwoven with this theme, but also with the

notion of superiority and inferiority of a nation.

Dr. Liza Tsaliki, associate professor of the department of Media Studies in the

University of Athens, having researched on the portrayal of Albanian immigrants in the media

and their position in the Greek society, has stated that the Greek media ''have played a

significant role in the stigmatisation of Albanians by regularly associating them with crimes of

a particularly ferocious or morally reprehensible nature[...] ever since their arrival in the 90's''

(2010:89) Following her findings, the percentage of newspapers holding discussions over the

Albanian community within a discourse of criminality and deviance is estimated around 30%.

Even though this number does not constitute the majority of the press, it does illustrate that

one out of three times that an article regarding Albanians is written, there is a correlation

between this particular ethnic minority and deviance. In accordance with the choice of the

article author to single-out Albanians from other immigrants, Tsaliki also underlines that the

word Albanian, in two-thirds of the Greek newspapers, is employed in a pejorative sense and

is ''used to describe a one-label-fits-all homogeneous group.'' (ibid. 2010:99)

Coming back to Bitsika's article we encounter a passive-aggressive style of writing in

the main body of the text. The journalist appears to struggle with her feelings and what she

names common sense. Common sense dictates that since the law recognises any student with

the best grades, he or she should bear the flag. What is more, not denying a foreign national

the right to carry the Greek flag could count as a protest against xenophobia and intolerance

as well as recognition to a child that works hard for their grades. On the other hand, it is

unfathomable for our (the Greeks') historical enemies to now bear the national symbol of

pride, freedom and independence. On the third paragraph of the text, we encounter the phrase,

cited by the saga of 1940-1941: ''Albania's mountains were white of snow and the bones of

the Greeks, fallen by Italians, are still there; illuminated by the sun light, glowing in the

frosted nights.'' A few lines after, the journalist refers to the fact that some of the Greek men

who fought the Greek-Italian war are still alive, so are relatives and friends of people who

died in the battlefield. This reference of vivid details, using the words ''bones'' , ''The

Albanian'' (being the name of the saga), ''the dead who fought for the flag'', presents a rather

hostile image of the particular ethnic group, through the reflection of war images, even though

the article is written 64 years after the war and the children to-be-flag-bearers are born in

Greek territory and receive Greek education since they come from families that have been

29

established in the country for years.9 At this point, it is imperative to underline that there is no

evidence of the distinction between one's national identity and one's ethnicity. There are

multiple occasions where immigrant students have denied the bearing of the flag because of

their national identity. Such is the case of Odysseas Chenai, an Albanian student who had

been nominated twice to participate as flag-bearer in the national parade but had resigned both

times. (in.gr, 22/10/2003) On the other hand, the majority of students given the opportunity to

carry the Greek flag are embracing it, as it coincides with the national identity they have

formed for themselves. If we take into account Parekh's notion of the nation (1995) -it being

the people who inhabit a specific territory that live and act among like-minded individuals-

then we could afford the possibility that foreign nationals living in Greece could have formed

a Greek identity.

In the same context we find plenty of articles all over the mainstream media covering

this discourse. As it is stated by Diamanti I. in her article ''Alien students as flag bearers'' (I

Kathimerini, 26/10/2008) ''twice per year, the lenses of media prise the national parades,

especially focusing on the occasions where the flag-bearer does not reflect the identity

''Greek-Orthodox Christian''. In the same newspaper we read an article, under the title ''An

albanian child bears the flag- the Greeks abstain from the parade.'' (I kathimerini, 27/10/2001)

In another article, this time in the newspaper Eleutherotypia, we read: ''Indignant parents of

the elementary schools don't want Albanian nationals to carry the Greek flag.'' (21/03/2013)

This article describes two incidents of parents protesting about the schools' decisions to

nominate Albanian students to bear the flag. Quoting from the text ''the parents threatened that

unless the school provides them with an alternative they will take the flag themselves from the

hands of the faithless.'' On behalf of the newspaper To Vima, Bitsika Panagiota, in her article

''The flag of the parade bifurcated the town of Kalives in Poligiros'' (15/03/2009),

commenting on a similar incident, writes: '' The others and us, in different perspectives.

Immigrants who work for us, with their children among ours, divided by our flag in order to

separate the wheat from the chaff.'' The selection of this phrase is by no means accidental. In

an attempt to interpret the proverb we acknowledge the Greek nationals as the wheat, namely

the worthy, and the immigrants as the chaff, meaning the useless, meaningless. When it comes

to who is going to bear the holy symbol of the nation, it is the ''wheat'' that should have the

honour to do so, according to the common sense, as it is being presented in the press. Even if

this is not the journalist's opinion, or even if the author keeps a neutral or passive-aggressive 9 Schools in Greece are public. In order for someone to receive Greek education, they have to be employed and

taxed in Greece. The first opportunity to participate in a national parade as a student is given at the 6th grade of elementary school.

30

approach to the matter in question, though, is it fair to conclude that the articles do not present

a negative image of the immigrants in this case? Most of the articles above seem to agree in

their introductions that the media are recurrently interested in national parades and alien flag-

bearers, yet the authors themselves address the matter in order to provide certain continuity.

As a journalistic practice, the word Albanian keeps its prominent position mixed with a

selection of other words such as ''serving'', ''others'', ''faithless'', ''Greek bones'', ''chaff'' etc.

Another article worth-mentioning was published at the newspaper To Proto Thema

(30/10/2012). Under the title ''We don't want the Albanian girl as flag-bearer, we will call the

Golden Dawn.'', the article negotiates another incident where an Albanian girl was nominated

to carry the flag in the parade of town Farsala, in the central northern part of Greece, but

decided not to do so when a number of her fellow students and the parents' association

threatened the school's principal that they would call the far-right party should the girl bear

the flag. This incident, very much alike the story of Odisseas Chenai, mentioned above, had

been to the centre of attention of the press and the Greek television for several days up until

the decision of the Albanian girl to renounce her right to the flag. Whilst we do not encounter

the author's view regarding this case in the article's text body, it is the content of the article’s

title that drew our special attention. The first thing to notice is the use of the first person in

plural ''we don't want''. Even though the writer does not state that he agrees with the students'

and parents' opinions, the use of ''we'' reveals a common acceptance, from ''us'', the Greeks,

and expresses vividly the rhetoric of ''we'' and ''others'' that provides the distinction between

the nation and the ''outsiders''. What is more, we notice the appearance of the nationalistic

party, freshly elected as the third party to enter the Greek parliament in June 2012, as a threat.

In this case, apart from distinguishing between ''us'' and the ''others'', the discourse of

supremacy/inferiority comes into play since the statutes of the party identify it as ''a popular

movement with faith in the ideology of nationalism.'' (Ellinas, 2013:547) Additionally, it is

important to note that as Psarras (2012) and Ellinas (2013) state, the Golden Dawn started to

be politically active with the arrival of the first Albanian immigrants, simultaneously creating

a xenophobic and nationalistic outburst.

Concluding, it is important to emphasise on the attention that incidents of flag-bearing

attract. While mainstream media tend to handle the matter mildly, on-line media, blogs and Tv

broadcasts, that do not constitute the elements of this thesis, tend to focus on this subject in a

much more inflammatory manner. In addition, as we discovered, such incidents have already

served as an inspiration for a popular Tv series in Greece, where the central heroine is an

31

Albanian student, with high grades, selected to carry the flag in the national parade.

To recapitulate, in this part of our analysis we concentrated on matters of immigrants

bearing Greek national symbols. After having described the importance of national parades

during the national celebration days and the laws regarding the flag bearing, we looked into

the way the mainstream press handles such matters in the occasion of an immigrant student

nominated as the flag-bearer. It is evident by our analysis that immigrants carrying national

symbols is a discourse that attracts lots of publicity and raises questions of ''worthiness''.

Most of the incidents analysed above regard Albanian nationals, since as we have already

explained, they have been the first immigrants to enter Greek education. Nevertheless, this is

not the reason why Albanians are often singled-out and focused-on in the articles. Through

descriptions of war images, stereotyping and the stigmatisation of the specific nationality, the

articles reveal the ''unworthiness'' of bearing the holy symbols of the nation. What is more, the

use of the first plural person renders the rhetoric of ''we'' and the ''other'' evident, as does the

appearance of the far-right party, Golden Dawn, known for its racist statutes, in the more

recent arthrography.

5.3 Immigrants and their involvement in criminal acts.

This part constitutes the last partition of our analysis and negotiates the involvement of

immigrants in Greece with criminality. According to Poulogiannopoulou's research regarding

criminality in the Greek press, the criminalisation of immigrants seems to be evident by the

selection and the use of special social phenomena, such as the illegal immigration

(lathrometanasteusi). Poulogiannopoulou (2010) reports the tendency of the press to

overproject immigrants' criminal activity, a fact that leads to the reproduction of the

stereotype illegal immigrant-criminal. From the same investigation, we learn that 53% of

Eleutherotypia's articles, 50% of To Vima’s and 48% of I kathimerini’s canalise a certain

negative stereotypical representation of immigrants.

What captures special attention and seems to be a recurring phenomenon throughout

our material is that the articles' titles, that initially pave the way for what is about to be said,

convey a message of social threat from the side of the immigrants and a dramatisation of the

situation via practices of verbal gimmicks, scandalous details and interviews of the “average

32

citizen”. Moreover, incidents of immigrant criminality seem to trigger more publicity, as the

newspapers tend to publish more than one articles about them.

Such is the case of the murder of Manolis Kantaris, whose death had occupied the

Greek press and Tv by the time of the incident up until the incarceration of the murderers. In

the newspaper To Proto Thema, we find two articles concerning this incident dated the day of

the murder (10/05/2011) as well as the day of the trial (25/09/2012). In the first article, under

the title ''they killed him while he was taking his wife to the hospital to bear their child...'', we

read about M. Kantaris that was attacked and killed right outside his house by thieves who

wanted to steal his camera while he was on his way to his car in order to drive his parturient

wife to the hospital. What should be highlighted about the article's language is the use of the

phrases ''Statewide shock'' and the emphasis on the nationality of the victim in the first

sentence, ''44 year old Greek''. What is more, even though police investigation is still

premature, the author of the article writes: '' an eye witness stated that it was three dark-

skinned men who stabbed him, so from what we have gathered by now, they must have been

immigrants.'' This statement, true to journalistic practices of speculation and stereotyping,

adds a certain scent of criminalisation. The rhetoric of the ''Greek victim'' and the ''immigrant

criminals'' appears one more time as a pattern of the representation of the ''other'' in the Greek

press. Additionally, in the same article we are informed about the society's shock both in the

neighbourhood of the victim as well as in the birthplace of the widow. Characteristically, the

article reads: '' no one will ever be able to explain why!'', commenting on the crime's

unfathomable nature. A few months later, at the day of the trial, after the police investigation

concluded that the perpetrators where of Afghan origin, we encounter another article in the

same newspaper, under the title ''Life sentence for the Afghans for the brutal murder of M.

Kantaris.'' It is interesting to pinpoint that the nationality of the aggressors is what identifies

them, according to the title, rather than the fact that they are criminal, guilty of murdering

somebody.

Although the article's purpose is to inform the reader about the court's decision, the

journalist once more describes in full detail the crime ''three stubs in the neck, chest and

heart'', a fact that intensifies the repulsion towards the Afghan aggressors. Ten days after the

murder, along the same lines, an article, under the title ''They killed him for 120 euros...'' is

published in the newspaper Ethnos. Even though, the author of this article does not aim so

directly at the invocation of sympathy and shock, he focuses on the identification of the

aggressors. In the conclusion, we read: '' after the hideous crime the perpetrators went back to

their home where they live together with other immigrants, the majority of which are illegal''

33

and ''one of the aggressors had a criminal record of drug dealing'', a fact that intensifies the

attitude of the author to associate the aggressors with other kinds of criminal activities, illegal

immigration among them. A more neutral recording of the incident is found in the newspaper

To Vima (19/05/2011), although the title of the article is referring to the nationality of the

murderers as well. The supplementary title of the article is also worth-mentioning as it reads:

''They sold his life (referring to the camera they have stolen) for 120 euros'', indirectly

commenting on the atrocity of this crime.

Moving on along the same lines, we encounter numerous articles regarding immigrant

criminality of all sorts parading in the Greek mainstream press. In 30/05/2014, in the

newspaper To Vima we read '' The murder of an elderly woman in Exarheia has been

resolved''. The subtitle of the article hastens to inform the reader about the ''three immigrant

aggressors, two of them already arrested''. Once more pointing out the nationality of the

criminals as the main element of the article, the first sentence of the main body of the text

refers to ''three Moroccan nationals...'' that viciously killed an elderly woman while her four

year old grandson was tied up and muzzled. After presenting the reader with the police

statement, the journalist describes the crime in detail, reflecting on the pre-planning of the

murder as well as the prior record of the aggressors.

Another top-story that had provoked a news-making frenzy in the Greek media as well

as the social media is the case of a group of thieves in Athens. In To Proto Thema, we read an

article regarding this, under the title ''The thieves with the irons cause fear and terror: All the

activity of the Georgian torturers.'' As we have previously shown, the nationality of the

perpetrators seem to be the first key to their identification, most of the times followed by an

adjective that adds to the dramatisation of the situation, such as torturers in this case. By the

subtitle of the article we are prepared to read the victims' descriptions of the robberies

(subtitle: The victims' descriptions are shocking), but before getting into the descriptions we

encounter the journalist's opinion in the first sentence of the body text, in bold ''Ruthless and

sadistic. It is a miracle that we haven't mourned victims yet this year’’. Once more, we are

presented with the rhetoric of superiority/inferiority by following the syllogism of the text.

The first clue we get as readers, in the title, is that the group is of a different nationality

(Georgians) and that they are ruthless and sadistic, in a sense of cold-blooded or unprincipled.

Right after these sentences, we read ''they are by far the most dangerous robbers-attackers that

appeared in Greece the past few decades.'', a fact that leads the reader to contemplate on the

increase of criminality, especially the last decades that there has been an increase of

immigration as well, when at the same time news about group robberies by Greek criminals

34

are quite rare in the Greek media. A paragraph later, the author continues commenting on the

nationality of the perpetrators by writing: ''Coming from Georgia and other countries of the

Soviet Union, these groups of torturers, spread terror and shed blood in every attack.'' At this

point, it is worth-mentioning to highlight that out of the 13 times that the author referred to

the perpetrators 11 times he used their nationality e.g Georgian criminals, immigrant

torturers, immigrant robbers etc. After looking at the details of the crimes (the robbers burnt

their victims with an iron in order to obtain the PIN codes of their safes or visas) the author

engages in presenting statistics of criminal activity for the year 2014. At this part of the article

we encounter a sentence clearly stating the difference between ''our'' criminals and the

criminals of the ''others'': '' But, what is impressive is that out of the 201 arrested, 116 are

Greeks and 85 are immigrants. But with a significant difference! Immigrant criminals are

known for their cruelty and they are the ones to iron their victims.'' Following the journalist's

point of view, it is evident that Greek criminals are not as dangerous as the outlandish,

presenting a superiority/inferiority rhetoric even when it comes to criminal activity.

Following the same newspaper, we encounter one of the numerous articles regarding

the rape of an adolescent girl in the isle Paros that attracted the publicity of the press and the

TV news-making, as one of the most hideous crimes ever occurred in the country by a

Pakistani national. We have selected the last article to be published regarding this matter

entitled “Life sentence for the monster will not heal Myrto's wounds’’ (Myrto is the name of

the victim). Once more, the nationality of the aggressor is evident in the majority of times that

the author refers to him. Characteristically, we read in one of the subsections of the article:

''The plea and the ''apology'' of the Pakistani''.

Lastly, moving on to an article presenting the involvement of immigrants in criminal

activity in a more general sense, we read the article ''Alert for the influx of Jihadists'' by

Souliotis Ioannis. (I Kathimerini, 26/04/2015) The author does not refer to a single criminal

act like a murder, a rape or a robbery. The reader is presented with the journalist's concerns

regarding the in-coming of Jihadists along with the influxes of immigrants, according to the

police statements. Even though, the journalist states that there is no rigid evidence of such an

event, nonetheless he describes occasional arrests of illegal immigrants on the borders of the

country that could potentially lead to an ISIS fighters’ invasion, cultivating an ''alarming''

situation that is caused because of the immigration influxes.

In the sake of recapitulation, in this section we analysed articles in the mainstream press

concerning immigrants and their involvement in criminal activities. True to the same

35

practices, as in the other two themes presented above, in this section we encountered several

attempts of the journalists to intensify the discourse of racial superiority/inferiority.

Especially, in one article, the author, in his own words, maintained that even though the Greek

robbers outnumber the immigrant ones they are not as cruel as them with their victims.10 In

most of the articles, we noticed a tendency for dramatisation and over-projection of the details

of the incidents in order to induce further aversion towards the aggressor. Although, this is a

common journalistic practice, the fact that the perpetrator's nationality has been present, from

the title of the article to the ending line, as an element of identification leads us to contemplate

on the cohesion of thoughts of the reader and the sequence of the correlation: immigrant-

criminal-atrocity, sometimes even over-generalised as in the case of the influx of Jihadists

that renders immigration from the East alarming and dangerous.

6. Discussion

The role of the media is determinant, regarding the ways in which the public at large

makes sense of reality. The approach of their role, though, is of dual nature. We could refer to

either their effective function, namely the content or operational framework, or the theoretical

(philosophically or ethically speaking) one. In the first occasion concerning the current

10 Although, this statement in itself could trigger a comparative study of the hideousness of the crimes committed by Greek and foreign nationals, the author does not seem to provide any proof to support it.

36

function, although a research of the role of the media might be comprised of a handful of

theoretical approaches, there is a general agreement about their intermediary role regarding

matters of cultural and national identity (Papataxiarhis, E. 2006) (Papathanasopoulos, S.

2000) (Hall et al. 1997) . Referring to the latter function of the media, though, presupposes a

viewpoint from which their role is a conscious exercise of communication politics, either as

an aftereffect of regulatory interventions of certain institutions or of self-regulation. Under the

umbrella of this theory, we find that both the communicator and the recipients of the messages

are regulated and educated respectively, in such a way that they indisputably perceive the

constructed reality as the status quo. Our analysis, though, does not handle the current or

''proper'' role of the media but rather how the press mediates matters of identity and otherness

via its news-making, shaping in this way the wider concept of immigration.

According to Hall (1982:64), the media not only can misrepresent reality, but in fact

they define it. This reality does not clash with the social consensus. On the contrary, the

dominant ideology is presented as the only way of interpreting our surroundings, in that way,

offering it, the grounds to be ''legalised'' and perpetuated.

As we discussed earlier in our theory chapter, the meanings, canalised by the media,

are formed by what is mentioned in the text as well as by what is omitted. The presentation of

the text, the punctuation and the word selection is of great importance as well.

Taking into account the structure of the press publications as a whole, one, taking a

step back, could diagnose certain positions of the newspapers individually, even in the

mainstream press, where the differences among the media are minimal. Having investigated

five of the best-selling newspapers of the Greek press, we observed a diminutive deviation

regarding the language used among the selected media outlets. Central-left11 newspapers, such

as Ta Nea, To Vima and I Kathimerini seem to be using a more neutral, less aggressive,

indicative language, when it comes to the association of immigrants with negative notions,

such as criminality, illegal acts or even unworthiness of bearing national symbols. This,

though, does not mean that there is no distinction between ''us'' and the ''others''. The bipole is

still present, only handled with a more indirect manner. On the other hand, central right to

right media outlets, such as Eleutherotypia and To Proto Thema appear to be more explicit

even when following a passive-aggressive approach of the incidents. In the articles of the

latter, the distance between the ''we'' and the ''other'' becomes more evident by carefully

11 The political position of each newspaper is given in loose terms. We consider the media political agenda to be flexible according to periods of time and the political status of the country. Therefore, one could argue the political labeling. This is also the reason why we have not referred to the political colours of the newspapers in our analysis.

37

distinguishing the Greek nationals from the foreign nationals, the identity from the otherness;

a fact that is manifested by identifying others mainly through their national identity or

ethnicity.

Since in both cases we encounter the existence of the ''we'' versus ''the other'' rhetoric,

one could argue that the phenomenon of immigration is framed in such a way, that, on the one

hand, it responds to the pre-existing cognitive patterns and, on the other hand, it legalises

certain perceptions associated with it, concerning how the general public treats the concept of

immigration and the immigrants themselves. As Becker (1998:89) indicates, mediated images

create their own socio-political context, via the repetition of a limited number of topics; a fact

that leads the readers to draw certain inferences regarding the viewing objects, after the

absorption of specific information.

Drawing upon this thought, it is imperative to underline that the central informants of

the journalists, especially in articles that handle matters of criminality and employment, are,

in the majority of the cases, representatives of public authorities. The references to the

journalists' sources, when it comes to public authority figures, signify the images conveyed,

coating them with a gown of validity and reliability. Within this reference framework,

negative depiction of immigrants is ingested as if substantiated, therefore true. In this sense,

dichotomies such as the ''identity'' versus the ''otherness'' as well as racial ''superiority'' versus

racial ''inferiority'' are intensified in the collective mind of the public opinion, attributing to

the ''other'' alarming or plainly negative characteristics, representing, in this way, immigration

as a problematic concept. Such practices occasion obstructions to any attempts at achieving

social cohesion through promoting immigrants' integration in the mainstream society.

What is more, one could perceive this way of immigrants' representation as an act of

strengthening the collective identity. As we observed in our material analysis, when it comes

to the presentation of problematic fractions of reality, the word immigrants or aliens is

featured in all the titles of the arthrography and they seem to be repetitive in the whole body

of the texts. Especially, in times of political instability and social insecurity, the media invent

ways to attract the public attention as much as possible by inflating the aforesaid feelings. A

simplified version of reality is constructed deliberately, since the audience does not share

identical characteristics; specifically, society is comprised of a heterogeneous audience with

regards to social class, educational level, economic potential etc. This simplification of the

messages aims at the absorption of ''eupeptic'' meanings, since the publications are written in a

standardised, stereotypical way, while at the same time avoidance of any conflicts is achieved.

As a result, and by generating a practice of ''brain-washing'', ''our'' identity is boosted,

38

contrasted to the less favoritised ''otherness''.

One more interesting, if not hopeful, observation that derives from our investigation,

though, is the alteration of the press language and representation techniques over the course of

the years. Throughout our study we have identified certain stages of the representation of

immigration in Greece in the wider sphere. Even though, as we mentioned above, the bipole

of ''identity'' and ''otherness'' is present throughout the mainstream press publications, the

language, that seemed to be sharper in the past, got replaced by a more careful, politically

correct word selection with a sense of mildness and acceptability. One explanation about this

phenomenon could be drawn from the history of the country. Given the fact that Greece took a

turn from being a sending country to a receiving one, the initial social, political, cultural and

financial shock could have triggered a defensive stance, projected as a negative attitude

towards immigrants in the press. In the meantime, the financial crisis that the country

underwent and is still undergoing did not fertilise the soil for a more positive approach of the

phenomenon. Nevertheless, over the years the country commences to accept the new reality

and approach in a more tolerant fashion the idea of multiculturalism.

7. EpilogueIn the course of this dissertation, we attempted to investigate, analyse and discuss the ways in

which the mainstream Greek press has presented the phenomenon of immigration, setting the

background from the first major inbound flow, during the 90's, up until today, on the back of a

primarily negative bias. Our intention was to focus on the identification of the negative

depiction of immigrants in the mainstream Greek press and its dimensions.

In order to achieve a better understanding of how the phenomenon of immigration is

being handled in the wider public sphere in the country, we employed a retroductive

approach, following a procedure of step-by-step focusing to specific representative incidents

in order to draw an overall conclusion. By investigating into prior research conducted in the

wider field, we identified recurring themes of negative representation of which we selected to

analyse and discuss three, as listed below:

6 Immigrants and the impact on unemployment rates.

7 Immigrants bearing national symbols- the case of the Greek flag in national parades.

8 Immigrants and their involvement in criminal acts.

What is imperative to be underlined about the first axis of our investigation is that it

initially appeared in the Greek press during the 90's, when the first migration flow reached the

39

country, and it continued to be present, even not as active as in the past years, up until today.

Our data converge to the general notion that immigrants are an alarming, incoming minority

of aliens that seek to usurp Greek job positions or engage in activities of the obscure market; a

fact that deteriorates the condition of the country's economy, especially during the period of

financial crisis. The rhetoric of ''identity'' versus ''otherness'' in this theme became evident

through the journalists' word selection that continuously aimed at distinguishing between the

''Greek working hands'' or the ''locals'' and the ''immigrants'', ''aliens'', ''not our own''.

Another interesting point made by our analysis is the association of immigrants in

criminal activities and the way this phenomenon is presented. In this thematic axis we

experienced the rhetorics of ''we'' and the ''others'' as well as ''Greek superiority'' versus

''immigrant inferiority'' in the sense of the scale of ferocity of crimes committed. Additionally,

we observed the recurring emphasis on the nationality of the perpetrators, since it was

repeatedly mentioned throughout the articles' body as well as featured, for the majority of

times, in the titles and the subtitles of our material.

This sense of inferiority became even more evident during the analysis of articles that

were discussing the bearing of national symbols by immigrants. After having described the

importance of national parades during the national celebration days and the laws regarding the

flag bearing by students, we observed the representation of the matter in a discourse of

''unworthiness'' of the immigrants to adopt the Greek national identity -by bearing the flag that

constitutes the highest national symbol- regardless of them receiving Greek education or

being established in the country in a legal manner for many years. What is more, it is

imperative to highlight that the use of the first plural person (we) has been consistent in the

majority of the articles and the appearance of the far-right party, Golden Dawn, intensifies the

dichotomy of the ''identity'' and the ''otherness''.

Observing the phenomenon of the negative representation of immigration in the Greek

mainstream press from a diachronic perspective, we find that, even though the publications

are comprised of the same elements, as mentioned above, regarding the messages conveyed

and the presentation of the incidents, the journalists seem to adopt a more neutral, naturalised

style of writing, possibly indicative of the step to a wider acceptance of the phenomenon.

Drawing upon these tentative steps of acclimatising with the ''new'', multicultural

Greece, and given the fact that little qualitative research is conducted lately in the country, we

believe that further research of the wider field would prove fruitful for our academic

knowledge. The effects of such image-making on the public's predisposition or the

40

immigrants' integration in the society itself could provide the academia with an ampler

background of the phenomenon that would fructify solutions in the media, political and social

sphere.

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8.3 Digital Media Outlets http://news.in.gr/greece/article/?aid=490753 http://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/233151/de-theloyme-albanida-shmaioforo_-

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metanasteutiko/ http://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/437191/egataleipoun-tin-ellada-akoma-kai-

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http://www.kathimerini.gr/41908/article/oikonomia/ellhnikh-oikonomia/sta-yyh- paraoikonomia-mayrh-ergasia-kai-paranomoi-metanastes

www.kathimerini.gr/696417/opinion/epikairothta/arxeio-monimes-sthles/poios---poia- prepei-na-krataei-th-shmaia

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