ABSTRACT
Greece, like many small countries, with the exception of the Olympic Games of 2004, usually goes unnoticed in the foreign press as a low-interest country mostly associated with specific types of stories, such as the terrorism, natural disasters (mostly earthquakes and fires during the summer), or other crises such as political upheavals (such as the dictatorship in 1967–1974). This ‘model’ has changed dramatically since the outburst of the global financial crisis, which sank the country and its economy into the deepest recession in its modern history. The Greek financial crisis exposed some of the frailties of the Eurozone financial framework as well. The fear that the Greek debt crisis might spill over into the Eurozone gave the country extensive coverage in the international news media (Papathanassopoulos, 2011). The scenarios of a Greek default, as well as the rescue by the European Union in relation to the wrath in the streets, have triggered worldwide media interest. Consequently, the number of foreign journalists in Athens has increased dramatically. Several journalists stated 99 per cent of their stories are about the Greek financial crisis. One said, ‘If the crisis didn’t happen, be sure that Greece would be reported once in a year’ (FC7).
