Austerity Discourses in “Der Spiegel” Journal, 2009–2014

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:54 +0000

This article looks at the ways mainstream media discuss austerity and its failure to reach its
proclaimed goals, to reduce public debt and to boost productivity in the heavily indebted countries of
the Eurozone’s periphery. This study analyzed Der Spiegel’s articles presenting the crisis and austerity in Europe, focusing on the Greek case, from 2009 until 2014. A thematic analysis was developed in
the study a broad corpus of articles, focusing on the main ideas they unfold. Deploying critical political
economy literature, critical cultural theory and critical media studies literature, the article criticizes the
neoliberal hegemony of the EU’s crisis politics and foregrounds the role of mainstream media, including progressivist or objectivist ones such as Spiegel, in the reproduction of neoliberal ideas that expand far beyond the crisis, to produce the institutions, social relations, beliefs and subjectivities for a
post-crisis configuration of capitalism. The article concludes that Spiegel, like other mainstream media,
produce a biopolitical policing of the crisis’ exceptionalized subjects (the citizens of indebted countries)
and the implementation of crisis-politics by creating a public “structure of feeling” related to the hegemonic crisis’ rationales. These rationales are further connected to the development of the new neoliberal subjectivity, which is an objective of the crisis-reforms, such as austerity regimes. In effect, mainstream media discourses reproduce the hegemonic frames of the

‘The Age of Discontent’: Greek Publishing Through Six Years of Austerity

apostolos — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:49 +0000

The effects of the 2010–2015 economic recession on the Greek publishing market have been dramatic, by all means, affecting its structure, operation, quantity and quality features. What is interesting to investigate, thereof, is the response of the publishing environment to the economic downturn in the form of resilience, adaptation, innovation and change within the industry. While the ‘crisis’ has had more severe consequences for the firms at the top, connected often (but not always) to media groups, the experienced, specialized small to medium publishers and booksellers proved to be more resilient, sustaining a vibrant and diversified production within a fewer number of books published. New book titles were reduced by 35% between 2008 and 2012, with signs of further containment following to that. At the same time, a number of small, independent booksellers have sprung up, out of the need to support the distinct quality features of literary production, based on the ‘personal quality’ service model. An approximate 8% of the Greeks can be ranked among the ‘medium to systematic’ readers (i.e. reading over 10 books a year); they are the ones to support the volume and diversity of book title production, including some of the bestsellers, while the outbreak of the crisis concurred with a positive development towards the weaker strand of the readership. The international interest in the economic circumstances met in Greece has helped, to some extent, the export of rights of literary works either dealing with the individuals affected, or analyzing the reasons of the default. At the same time, digital innovation may prove to be a sign of a changing book publishing industry, striving to become international.

competition – To Archeio

Austerity Discourses in “Der Spiegel” Journal, 2009–2014

‘The Age of Discontent’: Greek Publishing Through Six Years of Austerity