Mediated conversation and political propaganda: A discourse analysis of news practices on Greek prime-time news

Abstract

This article examines the discourse practices of Greek journalism on mainstream commercial prime-time news. The article draws on data from Greek prime-time news and political current affair programmes over a 15-year period (from the early 2000s to date). By focusing on discourse and conversation analysis of journalistic talk in the studio, it will be shown that shifting discursive practices already in place long before the onset of the financial crisis that has afflicted Greece since 2010 have endowed Greek journalism with the discursive entitlements (or ‘frame space’) to challenge and hold politicians to account, in principle, allowing for more democratic journalistic gatekeeping. In reality, however, these same practices have created the conditions for an epistemological upgrading of opinion to the status of factual news reporting, in fact proposing ‘conversation as news’. These conversational practices have facilitated the Greek media’s role in shaping public opinion while allowing for the ideological manipulation of audiences.