The Spanish media coverage of the 2009 Greek economic crisis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2025-1185Keywords:
greek crisis, eurozone, spanish media, spanish press, critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, economic discourse, media coverageAbstract
Introduction: the eurozone crisis of 2009, marked by a sovereign debt and banking system crisis with Greece at its epicentre, generated a great deal of media interest in Europe, particularly in Spain, where parallels were drawn with the Greek situation. Methodology: this study analyses the media coverage of the Greek crisis in four Spanish newspapers (El País, El Mundo, Cinco Días and Expansión) using a corpus of 7 million words and the theories of critical discourse analysis. Results: the general-interest newspapers covered the crisis from economic, political and social angles, which explains their wider coverage. Discussion: the temporal distribution reveals two key moments, the first in 2011, following the first rescue programme, and the second in 2015, during the Greek elections and the launch of the third rescue plan. Conclusion: the Spanish press has used the Greek crisis as a prism to analyse and reflect on its own economic and political vulnerabilities, revealing implicit comparisons with Spain’s internal challenges.
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