Political Blogosphere Meets Off-Line Public Sphere: Framing the Public Discourse on the Greek Crisis

Abstract

This study, based on a selection of four popular Greek political blogs expressing the main ideological directions in the Greek political public sphere, undertakes a qualitative content analysis of the blog discourses to make intelligible how the deep Greek financial, political, and social crisis is framed by these blogs. After sketching the theoretical debates on the sociopolitical origins of the Greek crisis, we focus on blog participants’ perceptions of democratic principles and institutions. We conclude that what dominates in the debates of the far left and far right blogs belongs to the same rigid ideological raster that excludes an understanding of the principles and grounds of democracy. The right-wing blog’s ideological orientation includes antidemocratic strands of the far-right and far-left blogs, while the center-left blog is characterized by a liberal democratic stance.