Minorities and crime in the Greek press: Employing content and discourse analytic approaches

Abstract

The paper examined Greek newspapers' representation of crime where members of minority groups were involved. It focused on period of one month (April, 1996) wherein crime committed by minority groups attracted considerable attention in the Greek media. A content analysis, on the one hand, revealed the dominant newsworthy topics (e. g., politics, economic, international, social affairs news) and, on the other hand, did not show any difference in the attention drawn towards crimes committed by members of the general population ('general' crime) and those committed by members of minority groups (ethnic or racial, 'other' crime). A discourse analysis, however, employing Van Dijk's (1984, 1987) sociocognitive model, brought to light certain prejudiced discursive practices in the newspapers representation that may develop and reinforce xenophobic frameworks of understanding