Abstract
Patrona and Thornborrow examine the discursive constructions of crisis on television evening news and current affairs programmes during the EU Parliament elections of 2014. They focus on the economic crisis referred to as ‘austerity’, and the political crisis caused by the rise of populist parties and agendas in member states. Adopting a discourse and conversation analytic approach, Patrona and Thornborrow examine how the tensions at work across Europe during the 2014 elections were discursively constructed in national news narratives and in mediated debate through diverse representations of crisis. These situated constructions of crisis variously framed the stakes of the elections with respect to the attribution of responsibility and blame in different national contexts, and also helped to legitimize, or, conversely, to downgrade, the European project.
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Notes
- 1.
A naval and air operation by the Italian government (October 2013−October 2014) to carry out search and rescue activities in connection with migratory ship wreckages off the Italian coast. The Italian government had unsuccessfully requested additional funds from the other EU member states in order to continue the operation.
- 2.
The level of unemployment (running at 7−8 million at the time), austerity measures; Schengen, border control and immigration; de−industrialisation, ‘la concurrence déloyale’ and social dum**, were thus frequent topics on the far right. On the left, ‘crisis’ was articulated more in relation to legitimacy, and Europe’s perceived failure in terms of its initial promises of democracy, peace and prosperity.
- 3.
Since May 2010, the agreements signed between the ‘Troika’ (the EU, the ECB and the IMF) and Greece, to cope with the country’s mounting public debt, have required Greece to proceed with radical austerity measures and structural changes as an exchange for receiving packages of financial assistance.
- 4.
Syriza led by Alexis Tsipras won the 2014 EU elections securing 6 of the total 21 Greek seats to the European Parliament. According to Jim Yardley of The New York Times, “the vote has become a de facto referendum on the governing coalition and a test of whether ordinary citizens believe the government’s assertion that the country is finally on the upswing” (To Greeks, the Parliamentary Vote in Europe Is a Test of Their Own Direction, The New York Times, May 22, 2014). A few months later, in the national elections of January 2015, Syriza became first party for the first time, winning 149 Parliament seats. Alexis Tsipras was sworn in as Prime minister of Greece after reaching an agreement for a coalition government with ANEL (Independent Greeks party). In the same year, Syriza assured a second victory in the snap election of 20 September 2015.
- 5.
- 6.
In the Greek referendum of 5 July 2015 held by the Tsipras government, the public prosecutor, the government media watchdog and the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Papers (ESIEA) launched investigations into the reporting practices of privately–owned media channels, including the anchor and lead news journalists of MEGA channel, who criticised the Syriza government and supported a ‘yes’ vote in the lead–up to the referendum. According to the accusations, the reporters breached electoral law by not allowing fair and equal time to all sides of the debate.
- 7.
Screen caption: WE WANT A SOLUTION INSIDE THE EURO, BUT THE EURO IS NOT A FETISH.
- 8.
The practice of employing ‘detached workers’ in France from companies in EU member states outside France whose employment charges are much lower than those in France.
- 9.
The address term ‘chers compatriotes’ is a part of a meaningful set of French political modes of address and so for various reasons not easily translated into an equivalent non-gender-specific term in English.
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Patrona, M., Thornborrow, J. (2017). Mediated Constructions of Crisis. In: Ekström, M., Firmstone, J. (eds) The Mediated Politics of Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56629-0_3
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