Can Social Media Expand Public Discourse in a ‘Captured’ Mediascape?

Abstract

The Greek public sphere has historically been regarded by scholars as not having developed as robustly as in the West. Instead, it is dominated by patronage, clientelism, and an ‘iron triangle’ between the government, media, and influential oligarchs, shutting ordinary citizens and independent media out of public discourse. Amid the economic crisis of the 2010s and along with an institutional credibility crisis, many new political and media-related initiatives were launched, all heavily relying on and utilizing social media. To what extent did they demonstrate longevity and help expand the Greek public sphere? Based on interviews from two case studies of the Independent Greeks political party and the enikos.gr news portal-blog, the results show the initiatives were ephemeral or were ‘captured’ by incumbent institutions. Accordingly, the institutional credibility crisis in Greece persists. The results contribute to an understanding of how ‘alternative,’ non-traditional and crisis-related media and political initiatives can become subject to the same forces of capture as traditional institutions.