Vaia Doudaki

News content online: Patterns and norms under convergence dynamics

The article investigates evolutionary trends in online news presentation and delivery in the light of convergence dynamics. The case study of Greece is an example of how convergence ideas are ‘normalised’ in the actual content due to countering forces exercised by the dominant professional culture and organisational models in the news business. The findings provide evidence that the outcomes of this new culture of high interconnectivity that come along with convergence cannot be ignored even in countries with no advanced employment of its potentialities. At the same time, questions on whether, under conditions of scarce resources and a weak journalistic culture, convergence affordances actually create spaces for a more open and inclusive journalism or are used mainly as vehicles for economic survival, smothering any other potential, are raised.

Print and Online News: Remediation practices in content and form

Drawing upon the notions of remediation and bricolage, the present study investigates the content relationship of print and online news. The article analyses the main characteristics and changes occurring in the form of print and online news at a time when cultural, technological and economic imperatives nurture a new ethos in the practices of professionals and organizations. Print and online newspapers in Greece seem to share a symbiotic relationship, with the representational power of the print—articulated in news form and relevant news values and criteria—still being strong. Although displacement effects are hard to claim, both print and online media tend to refashion themselves. It remains to be seen whether this refashioning process will lead the two media to greater amalgamation, bringing them even to merge into one or whether divergence processes will prevail, generating distinct news forms.

Dependency, (non)liability and austerity news frames of bailout Greece

Instructed theoretically by the critical discussion on the media’s alignment with the institutions of power in societies, this study examines how the Greek legacy press framed the discussion over the crisis, by focusing on the bailout agreements Greece signed with the troika during the period 2010–2012. The analysis, following a three-step process in frames’ detection, focuses on the associations of actors and their responsibility, causes, solutions and effects of the crisis and the bailouts, as appearing in the news texts studied, and reveals a de-contexualised neoliberal discourse articulated through three distinct frames: the dependency, the (non)liability and the austerity frame. The representations of the financial crisis in the newspapers studied largely echo the neoliberal voices and strengthen the hegemonic discourse over the necessity and inescapability of the bailout policies, feeding the ‘masterframe’ of the neoliberal vision of the crisis.

Youth, ethnicity, and a ‘reverse digital divide’ A study of Internet use in a divided country

Internet use among young people in multicultural societies is differentiated according to socioeconomic and cultural factors, one of which is their ethnic background. This study is concerned with the unreported case of Cyprus – the last divided country in Europe, with most Greek Cypriots living in the south and most Turkish Cypriots living in the northern part of the island. The study explores two main questions: First, are online experiences of young people in Cyprus shaped by socioeconomic factors, such as gender, education, and income? Second, is ethnicity a defining factor regarding the kinds of activities young people undertake online? Analysis of data obtained by a representative sample survey of about 350 young adult Cypriots aged 18–24 in both communities suggests the existence of a ‘reverse digital divide’, as the more disadvantaged community engages more often in expression, association, and learning online. This finding provides support for the diversification hypothesis that suggests a compensatory or remedial use of the Internet by disadvantaged youths.

Sex and the City: In the ambivalent playground of postmodern identity

Abstract The Sex and the City television series marked a shift in televisual discourse regarding the representation of modern women. Flirting with postfeminist narrative and at the same time distancing itself from it, the show offers complex versions of postmodern female identity. The identities of the shows four main female characters are structured in direct relation to sexual, familial and economic freedom and in opposition to patriarchy. The show openly presents issues of womens sexual emancipation offering, however, specific interpretations of this freedom, through policing sex, normalizing some practices and demonizing others. The potentially unlimited freedom for identity reconstruction – a pledge made by the postmodern era and hosted in the series by New York – is bound to be performed in a field of fertile and yet chaotic contradictions with the individual paying the price of the ambivalent consciousness of the possibility to create new identities.

Framing the Cypriot economic crisis: In the service of the neoliberal vision:

This study examines the framing of the bailout-related news in Cyprus, adopting a critical analytical perspective. The examination of the actors’ associations with the main framing components (actors, causes, solutions and effects), as presented in the Cypriot elite press, revealed the dependency, the (non)liability and the economistic frame. These frames reproduce the hegemonic neoliberal discourse over the crisis, while disconnecting the responsibility for the crisis from the agents involved, protecting, thus, the legitimacy of their actions and of their authority. The media studied advocate the implementation of neoliberal policies (expressed in harsh austerity and protection of the banking system), legitimating them as the optimal model not only of the economy, but also of politics and social practice.

De-Naturalizing Antagonistic Nationalism Through An Academic Intervention : The Reception of Two Photography Exhibitions on the Memorialization of the Cyprus Problem

The article evaluates an academic intervention which consisted out of two photography exhibitionsin Cyprus, focussing on the memorialization of the Cyprus Problem. These exhibitions communicatedaca ...