Shifting Discourses: Banal Nationalism and Cultural Intimacy in Greek Television News and Everyday Life

Abstract

This chapter investigates whether, and if so to what extent, television news influences everyday discourses about the nation and national identity. It does so by focusing on Greek television news and its reception during two case studies in 1998 and 1999. Greece witnessed a resurgence of nationalism in the 1990s, which was manifested in various occasions, most notably the so called ‘Macedonia issue’. A parallel development during the same time was the commercialisation of the broadcasting system that brought about sweeping changes in the style and format of news reporting. The research reported in this chapter was stimulated by these observations and in particular by the question as to whether the sensationalist manner of news reporting had an impact on the expressions of nationalist feelings.