Examining propaganda techniques in the context of the Greek economic crisis

In a ‘fluid’ world, of increasing austerity measures in various European economies, Greece is in the epicenter of all economic debates concerning its own future as well as the impact on the European Union. In order for Greece to overcome its debt crisis, the Euro-zone countries, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed – during April 2010 on a loan-scheme for Greece, conditional on the implementation of austerity measures – ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (from now on called MoU). The application of the MoU, along with its implications, is the major content of the public discourse and of the news bulletins in Greece. Drawing on the rich theoretical background of propaganda, this research investigates the way the MoU and its policies have been communicated by politicians, through the Greek media (TV news broadcasts of private and public TV channels, online editions of newspapers and news websites). The research aim is to detect the ways in which propaganda, as a method, constitutes a fundamental characteristic of the public political discourse

Political Communication and Twitter in Greece: Jumps on the Bandwagon or an Enhancement of the Political Dialogue?

Social media already serve as a new place for the development of a “public sphere”, hence the exchange of argumentation on issues of public interest. More specifically, Twitter has been rather frequently used by politicians and parties in their attempt to establish a new way of communicating with the electorate. Drawing on the concepts of public sphere and propaganda and by conducting content and thematic analysis on the tweets of the two biggest Greek political parties, New Democracy (ND) and the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), this chapter examines Twitter as a platform of information dissemination and dialogue. The aspiration of this study is to contribute to a growing volume of research that seeks to examine the potential of microblogging to animate political communication and to increase political participation

The Greek Indignants through the domestic TV news bulletins.

The Greek fiscal crisis kicked off many structural changes within the Greek society. Among these the uprising of a new form of protest, the movement of “indignados” (Spanish word meaning indignants in English, aganaktismeni in Greek). The paper surveys the ways in which the specific movement was presented to the public by the domestic TV news bulletins. The proposed research relies theoretically on the framing analysis approach, aiming to elaborate on the Media point of view regarding the specific social movement. The research method is media monitoring and analysis (stemming from the research rationale of content analysis)

Anti-austerity Protest and Democratic Vision: The struggle for a new politics – the case of the Greek ‘Do Not Pay’ social movement

The twenty-first century witnessed the emergence of an unprecedented series of protests around the world. The global wave of post-2010 activisms illuminates how depoliticization, civic disaffection and the rise of individualism go in tandem with the struggle for people’s social and economic rights and the crisis of legitimacy of representative democracy. Looking at the case of the anti-austerity Greek social movement ‘We Do Not Pay’ Movement (To kinima den plirono), this project seeks to examine whether and how the protestors attempt to define their political presence and identity by exercising a new form of politics that responds to the challenges of a post-ideological world. In order to answer our main research objective, we explore the following issues: the message of the movement and the tactics used to mobilize the people that support it; whether the movement has allegiances to particular civil society groups and other partisan groups nationally and globally; how the protestors respond to austerity policies and ideologies at the national level and beyond; and whether the movement has been inspired by other social movements. To achieve such research aims, we have employed a qualitative approach by conducting semi-directive interviews with key members of the movement, including those involved in setting up and maintaining the movement’s online presence in the web page (http://www.kinimadenplirono.gr/) and Twitter and Facebook accounts

Effects of flavonoids dietary supplementation on egg yolk antioxidant capacity and cholesterol level

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of supplementing laying hen feed with different levels of hesperidin or naringin, bioflavonoids that are abundant and inexpensive by-products of citrus cultivation, on the yolk antioxidant capacity and cholesterol level. Seventy-two laying hens, approximately twelve months old, were assigned into 6 experimental groups of twelve hens each. One of the groups served as control (C) and was given a commercial basal diet, without bioflavonoid supplementation, whereas the other five groups were given the same diet further supplemented with hesperidin at low (750mg/kg of feed) (H1) or high (1500mg/kg) (H2) concentration or naringin at low (750mg/kg) (N1) or high (1500mg/kg) (N2) concentration or α-tocopheryl acetate (200mg/kg) (E). Measurements of yolk antioxidant capacity were performed on 8 eggs from each dietary group, at 0, 4, 7, 28 and 63 days after the beginning of the experiment. Yolk cholesterol level was determined on the final day (63th) of the experimental period. Oxidative stability of egg yolk, expressed as ng MDA/g yolk, was significantly improved in the hesperidin and naringin groups even from the first four days of the supplementation period (P<0.001). However, no flavonoids effect on yolk cholesterol level (mg/g) was observed. Antioxidant properties of flavonoids seem to be a promising natural agent for improving the health status and the shelf life of laying hens’ egg

Post-truth, propaganda and the transformation of the spiral of silence.

In 2016, post-truth was named word of the year. Since then a handful of texts have sought to further describe and explore the notion, moving beyond the initial definition given by the Oxford Dictionary. This paper rejects the term ‘post-truth’, in favor of propaganda; since post-truth tends to be utilised as an evaluative term of contemporary political public discourse, as articulated by specific politicians, predominantly through social media. Taking the field of information management as its starting point, our approach underlines the diachronic character of persuasion efforts through information management, understood as propaganda in the public sphere. As a notion, propaganda, in contrast to post-truth, encapsulates both the diachronic character of information management in the public sphere and the ground-breaking transformation of the process of personal opinion expression, initially described by the spiral of silence model, through the emergence of new interactive media

Media Ecology and the Politics of Dissent: Representations of the Hong Kong Protests in the Guardian and China Daily.

The phenomenon of protests, currently on the rise in worldwide democracies, is made known to citizens mainly through representations in the media. This paper, responding to the need for a broader view of protest media coverage in an international context, examines the ways the 2014 Hong Kong protests were covered by the online versions of two highly influential and appealing newspapers, belonging to contrasting media systems: Guardian and China Daily. By revising a typology of previously used frames and inventing new ones this study conducts a quantitative content analysis of news articles with the view to a) highlight similarities and differences in the media coverage of protests within the above - mentioned media systems, b) find out whether the media coverage of such events with political ramifications is affected by the geopolitical interests of the countries. Based on our analysis, this study suggests the need for revising the protest paradigm as important factors - the protests’ momentum, the media systems, the new information communication technologies and certain geopolitical interests - are involved in the dynamics surrounding media coverage of protests and as such they greatly influence the framing process. Moreover, our findings demonstrated that the media coverage of the 2014 HK protests by the two newspapers was reflective of both the media systems in which they function as well as of the distinctive national standpoints