ABSTRACT

Greece's sovereign debt crisis has been, and continues to be, one of the most debated and troubling facets of the European debt crisis, due to its domestic economic and societal consequences, as well as its international past and potential future ramifications. This chapter empirically tests the tension between solidarity and antagonism when covering protest events in Greece, using data from German quality and tabloid online newspapers from 2011 to 2013. It asks whether quality and tabloid newspapers focused more on promoting antagonism than promoting solidarity, and whether quality newspapers focused more on promoting solidarity than the tabloids did. The chapter shows that the coverage of both types of newspapers was generally geared more towards solidarity than antagonism, and that there were no substantial differences between quality and tabloid newspapers. The reporting of the European debt crisis has shown that the media can also have a disintegrating effect and contribute to negative sentiments towards citizens of other EU member-states.