Preview

The Media’s Portrayal of Greek Protests

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1267 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Media’s Portrayal of Greek Protests
The Media’s Portrayal of Greek Protests As many people know, Greece is currently in a large sum of debt. Theres no jobs, low income, high taxes, and more pay cuts every day. Families are being forced out of their homes, people are starving on the street, and it seems like no one is doing anything to help. These conditions are pushing the Greek citizens to the edge, and forcing them to stand up for themselves. The Greek people are on the brink of being forced into new slavery. They are working for such little pay, just to survive. This is a prime example of the dominant group, being the wealthy, having the power to control others against their will. The media tends to portray the citizens who are protesting as the criminals, because the media is mainly controlled by government. If someone has ever heard the saying “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” then they would understand why the media puts the blame on the protesters. The media puts false concepts into peoples heads, and makes them believe they are real. Greek citizens are being forced into poverty and are given only one alternative, to fight back. An online article states this very well, “From the beginning of 2010 Greece has been in the throes of a severe financial and economic crisis – without doubt, the worst in living memory” (Matsaganis, Leventi, Monastiriotis & Christodoulakis, 2011). The economic crisis was very sudden for Greece because of miscalculations and misreported information. “After a decade of fast growth, the underlying weakness of the Greek economy was made evident in October 2009, when the incoming government announced that earlier fiscal data had been misreported. The fiscal deficit and public debt estimates for 2009 were radically revised” (Matsaganis, Leventi, Monastiriotis & Christodoulakis, 2011). Basically this quote is saying that the nation was in a huge amount of debt, but due to miscalculations they did not know it. The government of Greece has been trying to fix their


Cited: Page Matsaganis, M., Leventi, C., Monastiriotis, V., & Christodoulakis, N. (2011, July). The greek crisis in focus: Austerity, recession and paths to recovery. Retrieved from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/38380/1/rGeeSE_Special_Issue.pdf Arestis, P., & Pelagidis, T. (2010, December). Absurd austerity policies in europe. Retrieved from http://mesharpe.metapress.com/media/64t4qptvlm2x076klqfw/contributions/t/5/u/5/t5u547142u752878.pdf Hartleb, F. (2011, May 27). A new protest culture in western europe?. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/content/6771650505472181/fulltext.pdf

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    International Monetary Fund 2008, ‘Europe: addressing the crisis’, Regional Economic Outlook: May 2009, p. 19-20.…

    • 885 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before turning to the factors affecting the proper organization of a Human Resources department and its role in hiring new employees, briefly need to stress the organization of the department itself. National Hellenic Land and Property Register consist of HR Executive Manager, two HR generalists, one HR coordinator and one HR assistant. The binding function of human resource management to business strategy at the operational, administrative and strategic level, facilitating managers and line workers and the continuous monitoring of developments, both internal as well as external highlighting role of Human Resources into a modern enterprise, and demonstrate the importance of the department. Recruitment and selection of staff responsibilities are exclusively assigned to the Executive Manager of Human Resources. The manager is responsible for all actions relating to vacant or new job, promotions and personnel movements, and maintains the necessary number of employees by carrying out recruitment.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    "Greece at a Glance Policies for a Sustainable Recovery." OECD. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2012. .…

    • 2413 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Greek Democracy Dbq

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Greek democracy was in some way unfair. There were many both fair and unfair things about Ancient Greece. One unfair thing was that only males who were citizens were allowed to vote, no women, no men who weren’t citizens. That was unfair. Mainly men had power over everything and to me that was unfair. One fair thing is that all men were treated equally in some way. Just because you were “poor” or not extremely rich didn’t mean that you could not have a job. Slaves were used. Peasants were used. The image in document 3 shows a photo or drawing on pottery of slaves working really hard at their job and peasants at a market. This goes to show a fair side of Greece. Greek democracy was very lenient towards their military. They even paid their military…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rome wasn’t built in a day but over many; in time its historical roots have come to symbolize Western civilization’s most admirable human traits and values of the democratic ethos: hard work, sacrifice for the greater good and cooperation. Today, Rome’s neighboring country Greece is called to mind as the democratic ideal’s counterweight: the modern state of Greece has come to symbolize Western culture’s most human failings by way of its financial collapse. Modern-day Greece’s default must be recognized not as some happenstance event occurring overnight, but the cumulative result of a series of complex and interdependent factors. The sovereign nation’s financial collapse was made possible only by the 2007 global financial crisis originating…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    European Union

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Although they tried to build harmony among themselves that is essential for them to avoid violence and helps to bond a strong political relation among each other .However , various level of social and economic growth as well as the change in values ,principles and political situation between members are the chief causes of discord among them. The current discord among European union (EU) which is one of the biggest financial and political union ,could be the regional economic combination which has been hindered the free trade of some countries across the EU. By local economic integration in today’s globalization, contracts among countries in a geographic region to attain economic improvements from the free movement of trade and investment among themselves (Hill, 2013). The Eurozone is obviously having a decline, unless a new wave of crisis. The London Financial Times states that, an 11 billion euro has been originated in the program for saving the Greek economy. The publication conditions that before the end of this year, the governments of the European nations which are the central holders of Greek debts want to allot an average half of that amount to the Greek government. Or else…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Soviet Union, speaking out against the system was uncommon at best. In Egypt, there are laws prohibiting protesting, which ironically people protest. These societies are far from free; these governments assume they have the consent of the people to do anything, or otherwise do not care at all. If the people do not have any say whatsoever in how they are governed, then they do not live in a free society. The foundation of our free society is delineated in the Constitution, from the right to practice any religion, to the right of assembly and free press. Protests remind us of our commitment to the principles the Constitution espouses, it forces our representatives to reconsider whether the laws they have made and will make truly uphold this image of the society we want. Protesting does not just positively impact a free society, it is the essence of free…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cyprus Financial Crisis

    • 1809 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The root of the crisis lies when Cyprus experienced a terrible recession in 2009 when the country’s economy was diminished by 1.67% including significant reduction in tourism and shipping which obviously caused high unemployment rate (CIA 2013). Since then, the country’s economy worsen and with the 30% decline of the real estate market has put enormous pressure on a rise in non-performing loans of banking system (The World Bank 2013). Therefore, the banks ended up with Greek Private Sector debt of Euro 22 billion and accumulated $120 billion inclusive of $60 billion from Russia according to Jolly and Castle (2012).…

    • 1809 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Neoliberalism

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages

    But just as under 19th century liberalism the market is not a system sufficient to organize an economy so as to guarantee human livelihood. Modern nation-states have not developed the institutions necessary to regulate and manage fictitious commodities and offer social protection (Wjuniski & Fernandez, 2010, p. 436). This is because unlike the early 20th century there is no political consensus on economic regulation, all elites are either explicitly on implicitly neoliberal (Featherstone, et al., 2015 p. 3). The construction of the Eurozone belies this difference while claiming to be a union delivering joint prosperity it has no democratic accountability and cannot be pressured by a traditional counter-movement from below. Previous ages of credit money, such as those that produced the international banking crisis of 2008, were accompanied by institutions that offered aid to debtors (usually religious in character) presently those international institutions, the World Bank, IMF, and ECB operate in reverse pursuing only the interest of lenders (Graeber, 2014, p. 369). This class of lenders who actually produced the crisis recreate it discursively as a sovereign debt crisis, as opposed to a banking crises, in order to promote their own interest (Featherstone, et al., 2015 p. 6). In Greece this portrayal of the crises has allowed implementation of austerity (Varoufakis, 2013, p. 208). Just as the World Bank used structural adjustments to liberalize the third world economies (Babb, 2005, p. 200) loans from the ECB are conditioned on further marketization and commodification in Greece. The reforms were nearly identical to those imposed in Latin America during the 90’s, sale of land and resources to foreign private…

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The loss of the Athenian empire was sometimes blamed on democracy in Athens. Eventually Athens went through many different revolutions where democracy would be defeated for a time, then it would come back, only to be defeated again. All in all, the democracy in Athens lasted less than 200 years, and the final blow came in 336 BCE, when Greece was overrun by the Macedons. There was a succession of rulers and empires from foreign countries that took over Greece for the rest of its history until the 1970s (Brand, n.d., 28, 34, 35). This was how Greek democracy…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    European Debt Crisis

    • 2361 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The “Greek financial crisis” revolves around the fact that the nation has a high level of debt and accompanied by a high probability of default. The story of the Greek financial crisis obviously coincides with the current global economic crisis; however, the events in Greece are unlike the financial events that have plagued the rest of the world. The story is twofold in that the Greek government is to blame for fraud and their poor financial practices, as well as the ECB for enabling such practices by making the cost of borrowing so low due to Germany and other more stable Eurozone nations.…

    • 2361 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When looking at social movements it is important to understand what makes them successful. Governments are in place to guide our communities in a direction of prosperity, when those governments fail to listen to the will of the people; social movements are what society relies on for social change. To…

    • 7176 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Hellenic Republic

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Landon, T. J. (2012, May 14). Many in Greece, Seeing Austerity as a Falso Choice, Want to Call Europs Bluff. The New York Times International .…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Eurozone Crisis

    • 1637 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Eurozone is a combined group of countries using the euro as their only currency. It was created in 1999 and currently consists of 17 countries – not all part of the European Union (Investor Words). Within the Eurozone, the countries follow a monetary policy and controlled by the European Central Bank (in other words, the ECB controlled the supply of the euro within the 17 countries). In an attempt to control government debt levels and deficit spending the Maastricht Treaty was created. As years passed, some countries government deficit began to rise and increased debt levels. By 2010, Greece (3% of the Eurozone) had public debt around 100% of their GDP. In order to lower their debt levels, the Greek government had increased their taxes and their borrowing levels. Solutions for fixing this issue consisted of stronger countries paying off the Greek debt – however not everyone agreed to such methods. Eventually, the value of the euro went down in the exchange markets and other Eurozone countries such as: Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain faced the same problem as Greece. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) donated money to help reduce the amount of debt – however not enough (Krugman, Obstfeld, Melitz, 2011). Since the Eurozone is controlled by monetary rules and does not consist of fiscal union (government collection of tax’s), it has made it harder for countries to recuperate from the crisis. It has been said that this Eurozone crisis is like a currency crisis as they try to preserve the euro from depreciating and losing value. Although, this is an ongoing crisis, there are certain steps the Eurozone can take in order to release the countries from their ongoing debt levels and hopefully reverse the effects on the euro.…

    • 1637 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Greek Government

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As I’ve previously mentioned, the Greek government has an incredibly low approval rating of just 14%. The people of Greece largely do not approve nor agree with their government, and that certainly hurts its legitimacy. Greece is currently in what is known as “The Greek Depression,” a financial crisis so severe that some have even declared it worse than the US Great Depression of 1929. (6) Greece currently is in so much debt that the amount owed equals up to 174% of its total GDP. (7) In order for Greece to increase its legitimacy among other countries, it needs to first fix its own crisis and regain social legitimacy from its own…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics