Contribution to Book
A Tale of Cyberconflict in Greece: Polarization and Mobilization for the Greek Referendum on Twitter
Transformations of Protest in Greece
(2017)
Abstract
This chapter concentrates on the analysis of the #greferendum hashtag, a term broadly used online and by the press describing the Greek referendum of 2015. This hashtag was among the most dominant of those days, trending in different countries and cities worldwide during the referendum period (27-30/6/2015 and 5-6/6/2015, trendogate.com). Here, the study of the #greferendum hashtag is taken as an indicative example of how Twitter was used during the referendum period, reflecting and supporting the offline sociopolitical turmoil, in what very much looks like a hybrid continuum (online and offline becomes seamless in reproducing the political crisis). The study finds strong linkages between online and offline polarization and discourse with Twitter reflecting the offline political turmoil. It points to the development of social media discourse with a direction from below surpassing the limitations of corporate mainstream media actors. The No campaign is expressed online through the development of a concrete discussion, including critique of the Yes campaign, whilst in the Yes campaign does not manage to dominate political discourse with a concrete ideology. This is significant as dominant commercial broadcasters and newspapers of the period were dominated by the Yes campaign. At the international level, key countries play a significant role in the crisis context both at the Greek and EU level (e.g. Spain, Germany). Hashtags expressing solidarity to Greece are framed on the dilemma of the Future of Greece, Europe and EU values. Additionally, an examination of the Referendum on Twitter demonstrates linkages in the framing processes between the Referedum, the Syriza campaigns and the European left parties in terms of ideological discourse.Â
Keywords
- Greece,
- social media,
- crisis,
- referendum,
- Twitter,
- political communication
Disciplines
Publication Date
Summer June 10, 2017
Editor
Theoni Stathopoulou
Publisher
Papazisis Publishers & EKKE.
Citation Information
Ioanna Ferra amd Athina Karatzogianni 'A Tale of Cyberconflict in Greece: Polarization and Mobilization for the Greek Referendum on Twitter' prepared as a book chaptr for Theoni Stathopoulou (ed.) Transformations of Protest in Greece, Athens: Papazisis Publishers & EKKE. Online available at: https://works.bepress.com/athina_karatzogianni/28/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-SA International License.