Abstract
This timely book offers a richly documented analysis of one of the most prominent articulations of the ongoing global economic recession, focusing on its reporting in the international press. The predominance of negative coverage in Western foreign news reporting is of course a well-established trend, but the coverage of the Greek crisis was seen by some commentators as particularly harsh. Was such a treatment justified, or was it at least in part guided by national stereotyping? To answer this question, Tzogopoulos examines the coverage in a selection of French, British, Italian, German and US media during the first 3 years of the crisis (2009–2011) and contrasts it with the coverage of other problematic economies in the Eurozone as well as with the complex reality of the Greek problem and the various internal and external factors that contributed to it, ranging from domestic to international developments. Apart from assessing the journalists’ stance and possible bias, he also examines potential links between media coverage and the particular economic and political interests of specific countries. While critical of international coverage, Tzogopoulos leaves no doubts that the main responsibility for the Greek drama lies within the country itself, and rejects attempts to blame Greek problems on external forces.
The analysis benefits from author’s experience as a journalist and analyst involved in commenting on the Greek crisis for the international press, but is also supported by an examination of a wide range of primary and secondary sources. As is often the case with media coverage analysis of this kind, the empirical material is limited to major daily newspapers in the chosen countries, including leading financial newspapers, two daily newspapers from each of the countries (one conservative and one left/liberal) and two tabloids. The articles were analysed drawing on a combination of basic content analysis, aimed at identifying the changing volume of coverage, and qualitative analysis of a smaller sample, using framing analysis. The criteria for selection of the smaller sample are rather vague and relied on author’s own judgement about what constituted ‘typical’ coverage for a particular country and newspaper – a problem the author acknowledges.
Despite methodological shortcomings, Tzogopoulos’ book offers a comprehensive and readable account of the Greek crisis and its reverberations in the media, which should be of interest not only to specialists but also to a wider audience interested in the ongoing financial crisis and the ways in which it is intertwined with the media. Understandably perhaps, Tzogopoulos is not interested in considering the implications of the Greek case for the broader understanding of foreign news coverage and the factors that influence it, and his theoretical framework and ambitions are therefore rather limited. Nonetheless, the study is adequately designed and sufficiently well executed to provide a useful basis for a more theoretically minded analysis.