Author: Allen

Greece: Final Information Network

Greece: Final Information Network

by Allen Bryan

 

Ekathemerini

Author: The International New York Times

Type: Traditional News

It is accessed at http://www.ekathimerini.com/.

The source is updated on a daily basis.

Description: This source is the English version of the site, originally published in Greece. The original version is in Greek, however, this one is completely in English. This site offers a variety of topics in which to find certain information such as News, Business, Life, Sports, Community, and so much more. The main perspective of this site is from Greece and its citizens, but it also gives an international point of view when discussing issues occurring outside of Greece. The strengths of this source are that there are many topics one could look through and it does not solely focus on one type of news. It also does a good job of discussing the subject matter, and the layout of the site is easy to follow. The main weakness is that many of the articles are hand translated into English. While it is awesome that people are employed to translate rather than bots or programs, there is still the issue of some things getting lost in translation, or just human error. This source is valuable as it is one of Greece’s top news sites, so it is always up to date, relevant, and a good place to find news from the perspective of the country.

 

To Vima

Author: To Vima

Type: Traditional

It is accessed at http://www.tovima.gr/en

The source is updated on weekdays/business days.

Description: This site is the English version of the original, Greek, one published in Greece. This specific site is translated into English, but it is originally all in Greek. This source focuses solely on political articles, with a few other kinds of variety sprinkled in; but the majority is on political issues. There are two main perspectives on this site. The first one is of Greek citizens, politicians, etc. and the next one is of the country of Greece as a whole and where it stands in relation to other countries. The latter can be seen when the article is about issues pertaining to a different country and what effect it can have on Greece. The strengths of this source are that there are many, up to date, and relevant stories, and also that this is a good site to find international stories that have effects on Greece. The weakness is that for many of the articles it seems as if they were translated by way of bots, or by individuals that are less than proficient in English. Because of this, many articles seem hard to follow, information may be wrong or skewed, and one must take what they read with a grain of salt. While the reliability certainly is a factor, the source is still valuable for the type of content seen, and also as a way of seeing how important it is for this source to have an English version to broaden their audience; which can explain some of the questionable methods used to go about this.

 

Greek Reporter

Author: Greek Reporter

Type: New Media

It is accessed at http://greece.greekreporter.com/tag/greece-news/

It is updated on a daily basis.

Description: This is an independent news site found in Greece. It is entirely in English with the option to view the news in Greek under the “Greek News” tab at the top of the page. This site offers a variety of news such as Greece, USA, Hollywood, World, and so much more. The perspective of the site comes from the independent Greek journalists that run the site. They try to put themselves in the shoes of whoever they are writing about, but ultimately it is their perspective. The strengths of this source are that the information is timely, relevant, up to date, fairly unbiased, reliable, and the site is easy to navigate. Possible weaknesses could be personal biases creeping in, although it doesn’t occur often, and also since the site is independent they may lack the resources and funds to dive deeper into some stories for more accurate information. This source is valuable in that it is written almost entirely in English for English readers, so no information can get lost in translation, also the independent side of things allow for the showing of different perspectives than a government-run news organization.

 

YiaHara

Author: Yiahara

Type: Social Media

It is accessed here https://yiahara.com/

It is updated on a daily basis but requires a membership (free to sign up) to view.

Description: This is a social media site found within Greece. There are various different languages depending on what you decide you want to look at, and what chatrooms you decide to join. There are all types of information to find on this site from Greek News, Sports, Religion, Upcoming Events, to Recipes (and so, so much more). The main perspective comes from the users themselves, which can have a variety of backgrounds. The information itself comes from what people are saying about these topics, so you are able to dig a litter deeper into a subject than you would with a simple Google search. This is one of the strengths as you have the ability to gather more first-person perspectives than you would by searching for these topics on Google. The main weakness is that to access this information, you need to have signed up and registered. This was a fairly quick and easy process but it still may be a bit of a turn off for those trying to find quick information. The source is valuable for its crowdsourced aspect. This aspect is the heart of the site and it allows for a variety of perspectives to be heard about a topic which results in some pretty great discussions.

 

The World Bank

Author: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD); The International Development Association (IDA); The International Finance Corporation (IFC); The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Type: Data

It is accessed at https://data.worldbank.org/country/greece

It is updated as new information becomes available, typically on a monthly basis.

Description: This is a global data source with no true origin as they have stations all over the world gathering and reporting on data. The site is in English. The type of information that can be found is statistical data information pertaining to the GDP, GDP per capita, Population, Life Expectancy, and so much more per country. There is no real perspective as the information given is quantitative more than qualitative. While numbers can show biases, this organization strives to show unbiased, factual data with little to no analysis involved to decrease bias. The perspective is global by nature in that because one can find information about almost every country, there are a variety of perspectives. These perspectives are the underlying statistical perspectives, that is, and not that of personal ones as seen in the news sources. The strengths are that it gives a variety of statistical data on any country you may want to know about, and then this information can be compared and contrasted to other countries allowing for differences to be clearly seen. The downfall, like to any data source, is that numbers can only tell you so much, and typically lack the ‘why’ the numbers are the way they are. This is a highly valuable source as it allows the audience to see a quantitative take on a country and see the physical hard numbers that have been gathered for years. This is a change of pace to the typical qualitative kind of information seen in news sources.

 

ERT1

Author: ERT

Type: Visual

It is accessed at http://webtv.ert.gr/ert1/

It is updated on a daily basis.

Description: This is a television network within Greece. The site is entirely in Greek but if you use Google to translate the page it becomes navigable. The type of information here is visual and auditory as you can watch local Greek news stations talk about the news. The perspective is from the Greek citizen, news anchor, and the writers of the news being talked about. The strength is that it is good to see how visual news is run and works in a foreign country so comparisons can be made with how news works here. One weakness is the fact that the site and news are in Greek. Google can help translate the page but not the spoken news, so understanding what is being said is a challenge. The site is valuable in that it serves more as a comparison to the news here than what one actually gets out of viewing the news unless you know Greek.

 

Dimokratiki

Author: Dimokratiki

Type: Traditional

It is accessed at http://www.dimokratiki.gr/.

It is updated on a daily basis.

Description: This is an independent Greek news site from within Greece. Because of this, the news is entirely in Greek. The site offers a variety of information including News, Sports, Interviews, and more. The main perspectives come from the independent journalists who write the article, but they also try to put themselves in the shoes of whoever they are writing for the best they can. Strengths of the site include, but are not limited to, the easy layout of the site, the up to date news articles, the independently run operations resulting in less propaganda by the government, and more. The main weakness is the reliability of Google to translate the page as it is entirely in Greek. This may result in some information being lost in translation and so what is being read may need to be taken with a grain of salt. This is an important source as, since it is written in Greek and by Greeks, it gives us a better understanding of how these journalists think and operate. They are also able to sift through breaking information much faster and because of this new articles are able to be written faster.

 

Macedonia

Author: Macedonia

Type: New Media

It is accessed at http://makthes.gr/

It is updated on a regular basis, few times a week.

Description: This is a news source within the northern part of Greece. It is entirely in Greek. It offers a variety of information such as News, Business, Sports, etc. The main perspective is that of the people of northern Greece, most closely associated with the people of Macedonia, which Greece still claims as its own (Similar to a China/Taiwan situation). The strengths of this source come from its user-friendly layout, the variety of topics including international (to them) articles on countries such as the US, and the perspective of a different kind of Greek citizen. The main weakness is the reliance on Google to translate the page and articles to become readable to English speaking readers. This may result in some things getting lost in translation which can cause misunderstandings of what the author intended, and some confusions when mistranslations occur. This is a valuable source as it gives the reader a different point of view within Greece than is typically seen.

 

Facebook

Author: Facebook

Type: Social Media

It is accessed at www.facebook.com

It is updated on a daily basis. Requires membership to see all information, but some can be seen without.

Description: This site originates in the US and because so it is entirely in English. The site offers a variety of information depending on what you want to look for. Using the search bar at the top one can find information pertaining to just about anything. Similar to YiaHara, the information comes from the people themselves. There are pages created by individuals that others can then follow and contribute to discussions. Because of this, the perspectives are from everyone who decides to join in the discussion and research. The strength is that because of the number of different voices, more primary information can be learned and obtained. It also allows for interaction between these people that is not possible through the traditional news. The weaknesses are that if you want access to the entirety of the information, an account is needed although this isn’t too bad as most people have a Facebook account, and also that any information read should be taken with a grain of salt as they are from people themselves who have biases. This is a valuable source for looking up information in Greece as many Greek citizens, those who have internet access that is, have a Facebook account and use it on an often basis. This is a good place to be able to have a discussion with these individuals and if you have an account then there is the ability to private message them for further information.

 

Eurostat

Author: European Union Office in Luxembourg

Type: Data

It is accessed at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/home

It is updated whenever new information becomes available, typically on a monthly basis. The news section is updated daily.

Description: Like with The World Bank there is no one true origin to this site; it operates out of Luxembourg but the information pertains to all of Europe. The site is in English. There are all sorts of statistical information that can be found here such as Population, GDP, Internet Usage and Access, and so, so much more. The nifty thing about this site is it allows for the users to download the Excel spreadsheet of the data which includes every country within the EU and allows for comparisons to be made easily. Another strength is that it is easily accessible and easy to navigate but also, the site has a small news feature as well which allows for the reader to view the data and then make connections to what is talked about in the articles. There aren’t really many weaknesses as it is a quantitative source for the most part that incorporates a qualitative aspect. One weakness may be that it is heavily Eurocentric and tends to look more inwards than outwards. This is another valuable source for looking up information about Greece because it immediately compares the data to other countries in the EU. It is also valuable because the data goes beyond simply the economic and basic facts such as GDP and Population to talk about interesting aspects of society such as Internet Usage, Access, and Places where it is accessed (and much more).

 

Stasinos.TV

Author: Stasinos.TV

Type: Visual

It is accessed at http://www.stasinos.tv/News/News.aspx.

It is updated daily.

Description: This is an online Greek visual news site. It is entirely in Greek. Unlike ERT, this site offers a link to various different news outlets around the world to give the viewer a chance to see all kinds of global news. Within the site, it also offers the viewers selective ‘stations’ to view depending on what they want to see such as stations for English news, Greek news, News in Cyprus, Sports news, and more. The main perspective is that of the people in Greece but the ability to change stations to other news outlets around the world grants the ability to view a variety of perspectives. The strengths include that ability and freedom to switch around and view news from all over the world, the easy to use site, and the dark background which is pleasing to the eyes, and much more. The main weakness of this site is that it is entirely in Greek. As done before, Google translate has had to come to the rescue to allow for the navigation of the site. Unlike with news articles Google translate doesn’t take much away from the context as the bulk of the information comes from the videos playing from the various stations. This is a highly valuable source at is not only offers a vast collection of Greek news stations of which to view, but also offers the ability to branch outwards to other news stations giving the viewer a large number of perspectives to analyze.

 

Naftemporki

Author: P. Athanasiadis & Co

Type: Traditional

It is accessed at http://www.naftemporiki.gr/

It is updated on a daily basis.

Description: This is a traditional news site found within Greece. It is entirely in Greek. There are various types of information that can be found on this site such as Policy, World, and Sports news but the biggest kind of information this site offers is news on the Economy and Markets in Greece. The main perspective for this site is of the Greek people but is more primarily focused on Greek businessmen as this will be one of the first sites they go to each morning to check on the market. One of the biggest strengths of this site is that right at the top there is a real-time display of the markets in Greece which is nifty to see how businesses are doing at this very moment. A few more strengths are the variety of sources, the user-friendly interface, a focus on international news, and so much more. The main weakness that is seen in many of these sources is the need for Google translate to auto-translate the page, thus making it accessible for English speakers. This also has a weakness as some information in the articles may be lost in translation or misconstrued by a poor translation. This is a valuable source as it gives the reader a better, real-time understanding of the economy and markets within Greece, but also allows the reader to drift into other categories if they so desire. The ability to view these market changes in real-time allows for a quick insight into how the economy is fairing.

 

iKypros

Author: iKypros

Type: New Media

It is accessed at http://ikypros.com/

It is updated on a daily basis.

Description: This is a new media news source from within Cyprus, a Greek island. The site is entirely in Greek. This site offers different information about the people of Cyprus including but not limited to Our Life, Civilization, and Views. Because this is a site about Cyprus and the various people and aspects of the island the main perspectives are the same. The main strength of this source is that it gives the viewer a different perspective of the Greek citizen. Similarly to the ‘Macedonia’ site which gives the view of the northern Greek Citizen, this site gives the views of the citizens of Cyprus, an island located south-east of Greece and is far closer to Turkey. The site is also fairly easy to follow but the main strength has to be this different perspective. The main weaknesses are that Google translate must be activated to navigate the site with ease, and also the fact that this site has this one perspective means it is limited in perspectives. This limitation has its upsides in that it allows the reader to solely see what is going on there and the reaction of the people within Cyprus but is also negative at the same time as it only shows one side of the story at times. Regardless of this downside, this is still a valuable source as if it is used in comparison to mainland Greek news sites, it can be a very important tool in showing the differences in the stories being told and how this perspective can play a role.

Global News Post #6: BBC: Greece is trying to stop the brain drain

BBC: Greece is trying to stop the brain drain

(Image from Shutterstock)
Blog Post by Allen Bryan
Summary: This article is essentially a take on a BBC post from a Greek journalist. It begins by talking about the current brain drain situation within Greece and issues that have arisen from it. It mentions how since 2010 when Greece was on the brink of bankruptcy, many smart younger individuals fled the country in search of jobs elsewhere. The number listed is 180,000 college graduates have left since then. The article then switches focus a little bit talking about the devastating effects that brain drain can have on Greece, and on poorer nations as a whole. The issue mentioned is that brain drain is “unsustainable for the economies of poorer nations”.  The article then talks about a Greek computer company based in London that receives money from Marathon Venture Capital due to the fact that they higher Greek businessmen. It also mentions how Marathon is funded by European investors and also how this company is making efforts to try and lure young citizens back to the country. The article here states how brain drain may actually be a positive thing in a sense as the country can benefit from the return of these younger citizens and their new skills. This could open the door for many opportunities in the country and Marathon is trying to find a way to expedite this process by opening 2 to 3 new companies and highering roughly 1,000 employees each.
Evidence: This was tricky to me as this was the first time I had found a Greek article that was essentially a review of something posted by the BBC. When it comes to the evidence, the article posts a lot of numbers, but there is really no link or reference to where they originated from, which is concerning. What is good is the reference to the company, Marathon, that is attempting to make progress and fix this issue. This allows the reader to go to the site of this company and verify, from their own mouths, if these numbers and whatever else is correct. The fact that the reader must do extra research for verification purposes, however, is not very beneficial in the overall reliability of the source. This article has an author at least, which is a nice change of pace from the last couple of articles found, but still no citation of the picture which seems all too common within Greece. This makes me believe that there is no law or precedent in the need to cite these images in this country, or else it wouldn’t be so common. Doing a quick reverse image search, however, I was able to find out that this image came from a stock image site. Other pieces of evidence may include the references to the activity in other countries and the European Investors in these efforts, but once more these would need to be further investigated to verify. One last thing to keep in mind is that this article was completely translated from Greek into English by Google translate. Because of this, it is important to keep in mind that some things may be lost in translation and to take everything with a grain of salt as what the translation says may be different from what the author meant to say.
Perspectives: This article is cool as there are many obvious perspectives. The first and most obvious is the Greek perspective and that of the author of the article. Here, we can see how this is very much a Greek problem and the author does a fairly good job at showing the reader the different issues and problems that arise from the current brain drain situation within the country. There is also the BBC perspective as it seems to originally be from this news source. We can see this perspective in the London reference and the computer company that is stationed there that higher Greek businessmen. There is also the perspective of a large number of young Greek graduates that are economically forced to look for work elsewhere. We see this in the fact that they are essentially forced to leave the country even though they have a college degree. We also see this in the reference that they would be willing to come back if given the opportunities; that Marathon is trying to provide. Lastly, there’s the perspective from the companies such as Marathon. This is prevalent throughout the article as the bulk of it talks about this companies efforts to try and lure these young graduates back into the country to help solve the problem of brain drain within Greece.
Citation:
Fourla, Dimitra-Marilla. “BBC: H Ελλάδα Προσπαθεί Να Ανακόψει Το Brain Drain.”Δημοκρατική Της Ρόδου, Dimokratiki.com, 6 Apr. 2018,
     www.dimokratiki.gr/06-04-2018/bbc-h-ellada-prospathei-na-anakopsei-to-brain-drain/.

Global News Post #5: An increasing aged population a long-term challenge for Greece

An increasing aged population a long-term challenge for Greece

Greece is one of the worst countries for people over 60

(Older people sitting on a bench at the beach of Thessaloniki, Unknown photographer)

Blog Post by Allen Bryan.

This article, as the title suggests, talks about the aging population in Greece, and the possible ramifications such an aging population could have. The subtitle immediately makes a bold claim that within 20 to 30 years the growth rate of the earth (not just Greece) will slow down. No explanation of how, but that will be made clearer in the next section. The article begins by talking about Greece and how demographic developments within the next 40 will have repercussions on growth, bank deposits, wealth, the standard of living, and much more. It then states how these changes are underestimated by investors, governments, and the business world as they view the issue as a “hot potato”. It then brings up the concern of who will foot the bill for senior citizens. The article then shifts its focus from the economic repercussions to the dwindling population specifically. Here the article brings up a study conducted by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development which projected that Greece’s population will dwindle from 10.6 million people today, to a mere 8.9 million by 2050. Next, the article talks about the fertility rate of Greece which is 1.33. It then makes a statement that Greece has one of Europe’s most aged populations at 21% of people being older than 65. The article ends by talking about a study by the Laboratory of Demographic and Social analysis which states that there is a disproportional increase in Greece of the “overage” population (people 80 and older).

Oh boy… I want to give this article the benefit of the doubt but when it comes to evidence it is riddled with issues. First, I will go through the multitude of things wrong with it, and then I will try to give an explanation the best I can. The first thing wrong with this article is that the author’s name is nowhere to be found. It does have a date, that being 3 days ago, but this is the only real piece of credibility this article has. As mentioned in the previous section the subtitle of the article makes a pretty bold claim pertaining to global population growth. This claim has no evidence to back it up, and unfortunately, this seems to be a constant theme with many of the claims and “data” throughout the article. The article “cites” two studies by so-called institutes and laboratories but gives no link to either study which is deeply troubling. Within the article, the author (whoever they may be) reference an individual with the name “BlackRock” but gives absolutely no context to whom this person may be or why they are relevant to the article. Similar to a previous Global News Post this article does not give any information about who the photographer of the picture within the article is. Lastly, even though there are still a few more, the article is very short and has a few grammatical and punctuation mistakes, leading me to wonder about the origins of the author.

Okay, I know that was a lot to sift through, and you may be wondering “Allen, if this article was so terrible then why did you even chose it in the first place?”, but hear me out. I believe that while, contextually and in its credibility, this article is almost worthless, I believe that this article actually shows us more about the news site and English news in Greece as a whole. This reminds me of the Wikipedia lecture we had in class in how the majority of the information on the internet is in English, and how there are a number of bots “translating” information from one language to another. I believe this is the exact thing we see here with this English version of To Vima. In fact, I right clicked in the photo to do a Google search to see if there were any other articles that used the image so I would be able to properly cite the photographer and give them due credit. What I found is that after going picture by picture in Google’s “images” section and sifting through about 30 Greek news sites, not one of them cited the image. What I found funny about all of this is that I actually stumbled upon To Vima’s actual (Greek) site which was the only place I was able to get any information at all about the picture (listed underneath the photo). So to bring this overly long section to a close I believe this article and cite (since all of their articles are laid out this way) is more useful in the way we understand how news in English is being distributed throughout Greece, and how it seems that the quantity of the articles is far more important than the quality. Whether that is for monetary purposes, a bot is translating Greek articles, or a number of different reasons, I know not. All that I know is that it is pretty disturbing, to say the least.

Lastly, and far quicker than the previous few sections is the perspective of the article. Even this was pretty difficult to pin down as it can be seen as outside looking in on Greece, or even from the inside looking in; in both regards looking towards the future. The lack of continuity throughout the article is what, to me, makes the perspective hard to distinguish. As an example, as mentioned earlier the article references a “BlackRock” individual. Is this from their perspective? Could it be from an academic perspective given the two studies “conducted”? Unfortunately to myself and I’m sure you, I am unable to give a clearer picture on the perspective of the article, but as mentioned earlier I don’t believe that the context or even the perspective of this article is what should be taken away, but “why” this article has so many issues in the first place.

 

P.S.

Thank you very much. understand this article is a stretch in that it is vastly different from the other four I have done, but I actually found it very interesting as to how an article such as this (and suspiciously every other article on this site (but not on the actual Greek version)) has so many problems with it. The first thing I thought of, as mentioned earlier, was the “JSbot” (or whatever it was called) issue in the Wikipedia lecture and I thought that this has to be the explanation. But it’s the “why” they would use such a thing that really fascinates me. Thank you once more, and I hope that by taking this approach I was still able to enlighten you about this Greek news source, even though there isn’t really any ‘news’ takeaway from this (that you should truly believe, that is).

Global News Post #3: Are Greece and Turkey Really on the Verge of War?

Are Greece and Turkey Really on the Verge of War?

(Image by Posterazzi, 2018, Turkey and Greece)

Blog Post by Allen Bryan:

This post by John Smith on The Greek Reporter was the headline article today, February 21, and the eye-catching title most likely plays a major part. While the time-sensitive title leads the reader to believe a war is inevitable within a few weeks the author eases the reader within a couple paragraphs that, at the moment, this isn’t likely to become a reality. The bulk of the article is about the current relationships Turkey has with its neighboring countries as well as internal issues. Greece itself is rarely talked about within the article but that will be talked about in more detail in the “perspectives” paragraph. The main conflict between the two Aegean neighbors, other than the historical conflicts that have been around for decades if not longer, stems from the 4 Turkish warplanes that entered Athen’s airspace on the 19th of this month. The author elaborates on the current tensions perfectly when he said “So, the Aegean tensions with Greece – always present – have been turbocharged by the simultaneous ratcheting up of tensions with Cyprus and inside Syria. This is what is giving them particular bite at this time.” While the title leads the reader to think this is a two-way article, as stated before it is mostly about Turkey. The rest of the article goes on to discuss Turkey’s current relationship with the EU, UN, and NATO as well as their current involvements within Syria and lastly the Kurdish issue within the country. All of this, paired with elections occurring within the next year, give the reader a sense of why these high tensions have led Turkey to take the actions they have.

The main pieces of evidence of the article rely on sources from within Turkey itself. When talking about Turkey’s involvement in Syria the article references Turkeys domestic media and its backing of the military operations. When talking about the Kurdish population and the issues surrounding that group of people the article talks about opinion polls conducted within the population which showed, according to the article, that the public seems to be more concerned with the Kurdish population and other internal issues than international ones. Much of the rest of the pieces of evidence are quotes from military personnel, political leaders, and from Erdogan himself (the current President of Turkey). When it comes to the validity of the evidence stated in the article, one can’t help but be a little bit skeptical of what he or she is reading. Not only because this is a Greek source talking about Turkey and, as a result, certain things and perceptions may be written in a particular way to influence the reader in one way or another, but also logistically in that there aren’t outside sources in which to fact check the statements made. Overall the article is written in more of an informational way rather than as a hit piece, or at least this is how it is perceived. One of the last things the article did (or in this case didn’t do) that was a little unnerving is the sourcing of the images used throughout the article. In order to find the source of the image used in this blog, which is the first image in the article as well, further research had to be done. This lack of information leads the reader to question not only the validity of the article but also where the images originated, who isn’t being credited, if this was done purposefully or if the author neglected to do this, and if so, why?

The perspective for this article is more straightforward, meaning it is from the perspective of Greece itself. The author takes more of an outsider, outward, perspective when talking about the relationship and the current issues between Greece and Turkey, but for the rest of the article when talking about Turkey it becomes apparent that this information is being targeted towards a Greek audience. One difference between this article and the other two that have been covered in these blogs is the use of social media and the focus on the impact on Greece. For example, the first article used tweets and images from Greek citizens and of the country itself. This article lacked this, which could have been useful especially when talking about the public opinion of the Turkish people. This is where the perspective of the article becomes apparent in that with the first two articles the primary focus was on domestic issues and because of this it was far easier for the authors to use inside sources, methods, and use of certain forms of media than this, primarily outward, international focused article. That being said, as stated previously, the use of sources and all forms of media throughout Turkey would have given this article more validity, significance, and overall would have made it “meatier”, if you will.

Thank you.

Global News Post #2: Greeks rally in Athens to protest use of the name ‘Macedonia’

Greeks rally in Athens to protest use of the name ‘Macedonia’

(Image by Raphael Kominis and Demetris Nellas, February 04, 2018, Athens, Greece)

Blog Post by Allen Bryan:

This was one of the leading news posts I found under the “News” section of one of my Information Network sites, Ekathimerini.com. Unlike my previous blog post which featured an article that was posted in 2015, this article was released earlier today (Feb 04, 2018). This article discusses one ongoing issue between Greece and Macedonia, or, what I should actually say the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (FYROM). I made sure to specify this because the article is all about a dispute in the naming of the country. The article states how tens of thousands of people (100,000+ stated by the reporters, 1.5 million stated by the organizers) traveled to Athens, the capital of Greece, to protest a deal that politicians from both Greece and FYROM agreed on. This agreement was a compromise to enable FYROM to change its name. In order to understand why this is a big deal, some history must be learned, and since I don’t have much time and space to go into the specifics here I will make it quick. But essentially this dispute started when FYROM gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. And according to the article:

“The country is recognized by international institutions as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, even though about 130 countries refer to it simply as Macedonia. Many Greeks refer to it by the name of its capital, Skopje. Greece argues use of the name implies territorial claims on its own province of Macedonia, home of one of the most famous ancient Greeks, Alexander the Great.”

So the main issue is that of naming rights, territorial disputes and an overall sense of preserving history. This article really interested me because, in a way, it left me confused. I felt confused because the first thing I thought was “well… Macedonia (the name I had always referred to them as) is its own separate country capable of making whatever decision it so pleases”, but then I had to take a step back and understand that the world isn’t as black and white as I had pictured it, and in fact this is the first time I had even heard of this long dispute between the nation. This, as well as other things, gave me a greater appreciation for all of these articles, and these projects in general because without this, I would have remained in my information bubble. So for that, I thank you.

Moving on we have the evidence suggested in the article. The main evidence comes from the personal recounts of the journalists that claim they were there. From what they have written in the article this seems highly likely but that was the first thing I was skeptical about. When it comes to the exact, or even simply a more precise estimate of the number of people that were there, it became apparent very quickly into the article that even the journalists had no idea, as the estimates varied dramatically. One thing I found very interesting between this article and the one I had used in my previous Global News Post is the use of social media, and using the public to support the article. This article seemed more traditional where there were reporters that went out to investigate what was going on, reported on what they saw, and used quotes from notable individuals to strengthen their analysis. However, while doing all of these things as well, the first article cited several different public responses from the social media site Twitter. In my opinion, and as I stated in said previous blog, this strengthened the article as it referenced a variety of different emotions, responses, and critiques of what was going on from a first-person view. I feel as if this article either missed out on the opportunity to incorporate this aspect (as I’m more than certain out of the 100,000+ people claimed to be there, many of them had to have documented their experiences), they lacked the time or effort to incorporate it, or they are simply unaware of this newer type of journalism. Either way, to restate what I just said, they missed out on a possible gold mine of information that would have strengthened their article.

Lastly, when it comes to the perspective, I am a little confused on what to put here for a few reasons. Unlike the last article where the focus was more than clearly about the people talking about the situation from there perspectives, this one was a little different. That is, while this article talks about the Greek citizens and their large protest in the capital, in a way I also feel as if the main perspective is from the authors. I say this because while they spend some time talking about the protestors and a little bit about the history of the situation, I still feel as if all of this is written in their eyes. Unlike other articles where the author(s) has separated themselves from the article, this one seems more of a report of the situation from there eyes with a splash of history added. I may be completely off in this assessment but as I was reading along I felt it harder for me to put myself into the shoes of the protestors and more easily into the shoes of the spectators, in this case, the reporters. This may also say something about myself as I feel more like a spectator in this situation as I have no say, emotional ties, or anything when it comes to Greek politics. Because of this, it may just simply come down to because I feel like a spectator, it is easier for me to relate to and understand the perspective of the spectators of this event. Again, all of this can relate back to my personal information bubble that I am trying very hard to escape from, if not at the very least, enlarge. But I digress. When it comes to the perspective of the article, it is either from the view of the citizens who are upset with their politicians over a political, historical, and emotional decision/situation, or from the reporters of this all. Either way, this is a big issue in this country that has been ongoing since the 1990’s.

Thank you.

Greece: Country Report (Information Network) – Allen Bryan

Ekathemerini (Traditional): This is one of Greece’s top newspapers. Initially, this source was completely in greek, and not knowing how to understand the language, it was all greek to me (ba dum tss). All jokes aside I quickly found that there was an English section of this site, and unlike some sites where google translates the page in real time, this site has actual translators who translate the articles into English. I found this very cool and having dedicated translators for this site means that much of the information from the original articles won’t be lost in [Google] translation. The site itself is similar to the dispatch or the times in that it is heavy on the news, but it also branches off and covers a variety of different topics such as business, lie, sports, etc. which gives its readers an assortment of topics to chose from.

It is accessed at http://www.ekathimerini.com/

I chose this because I believe that in order to learn about a country it is important to look over their open sources. It is not only good for gathering information about the country but because they are typically written by journalists from within the country itself, it gives you a good idea of what and how the people are thinking, and how the society runs. This can give you a better understanding of cultural norms, and simply an overall deeper understanding of the citizens from within a country.

 

To Vima (Traditional): This is another one of Greece’s top news outlets. This one differs a little bit from the previous one in that it is more similar to a Fox, CNN, and MSNBC, in that it is more focused on the politics of the country and region. Although it is primarily about politics it does dabble a little bit into economics and religion, but usually relates these to how they affect politics. This site is good in that it gives a more specific focus and its approach to the news is similarly structured. This way if I need to find a credible and reliable news piece about politics in Greece or in the Mediterranean, then this will be the first place I go to, unlike the previous source where it is more open to any kind of news story.

It is accessed at http://www.tovima.gr/en

I chose this for similar reasons to the previous source in that using news sources from within the country itself gives a richer understanding of the culture. However, unlike the previous source, this one gives me a better understanding of the political views of the citizens and in what ways they focus these views. This will give me a better understanding of how they view their government and its relationship with its citizens. This can now only help me learn the history of the country but can give me a good idea of what the political future holds for it as well.

 

Greek Reporter (New Media): This source is very similar to that of the first one in that it incorporates many different topics in which it reports on. These topics are the news, life, entertainment, sports, etc., again, similar to the first one. One different and interesting thing I noticed with this site, however, is that there is a news tab all about Cyprus, a large island and one that has been controversial since the 1970s  when Turkey invaded and took a large portion of the land. Today there have been many attempts towards independence but this is an on-going story and one that I will probably be talking about in the future. But I digress. What makes this source different from the other two, and why I have decided to put it under the “New Media” section, is that they are solely an online news outlet while the other two continue to sell physical newspapers as well as being online.

It is accessed at http://greece.greekreporter.com/tag/greece-news/

I chose this because it gives a different point of view as the other two, arguably more formal and established news outlets. This site also has more of an international view of not just Greece but many different regions of the world (as seen at the tops of the site), and according to their ‘about’ tab “we are the Greek news source for everything that matters from all around the world.” This struck out to me as well as a lot of other things they talked about here, which I don’t have the space to quote it all, but essentially they were one of the first online Greek news sites.

 

YiaHara (Social Media): I found this source very interesting because it is a combination of social media and a travel guide. By this I mean there is a social media aspect to it, specifically called “social network”, but the site does not stop there. It is essentially a series of forums that discuss all things Greece. Aside from the social network aspect the site also includes destinations (within Greece), upcoming events, news, food, art, religion, sports, and so much more. I found this very interesting because while many social media sites also have these, they are far more difficult to find, access, and interact with, while this one has all of these options right up front and then (after creating an account) you can jump right in and learn about a variety of different things within Greece.

It is accessed here https://yiahara.com/

I chose this because it allows me to, in a way, step outside my social media “comfort zone” if you will. I am so used to sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and other forms of social media that are big in the united states and those used by my friend groups that I sometimes forget that there are so many others out there. Also, this is probably one of the best ways to find out about how the people there think, how they live, what kinds of foods they eat, shows/sports they watch, and so much more day to day aspects of their life, better than that of the first source I mentioned. While this site is great for understanding the people better, I do have to keep in mind that this is not a news site and I probably would have to be more careful accepting things other than opinions that are posted on here.

 

The World Bank (Data): This site will be a quick one to define and that’s because it’s nothing but numbers. This site dives deep into many different facets of a country such as GDP, Population, Gross enrolment rates, CO2 emissions, Poverty, Life Expectancy, and so much more. This site not only gives you the current rates but shows you graphs of the trends over the years. One cool thing I found about this site is that it goes even further than just giving you raw data and graphs but it also has a number of surveys conducted over the years as well. These surveys can also give the user additional information they might be looking for. But overall, this is a solid site for data on a multitude of countries.

It is accessed at https://data.worldbank.org/country/greece

I chose this site for obvious reasons, that is it gives me good, reliable, data on many different aspects of a country. If I want to see how a country’s GDP or life expectancy is and how it has changed over the years, there’s a graph for that. Overall it is a great site for whatever quantitative information I want to find out about my country.

 

ERT1 (Visual): This is one of Greece’s top TV news outlets. From here you can find a variety of different topics in which the new station talks about. One of the main challenges I had with this site was that there wasn’t an English version of the site. This wasn’t too much of a challenge when I realized that Google Chrome could translate the pages in real time. After I activated this, navigating the site(s) became far easier. This site has many videos (which are essentially just recordings of when the broadcast was live) about news, entertainment, sports, and a series of different channels as “ERT” is essentially an umbrella/parent company for a number of different channels. One interesting thing I found while navigating this site was under their “Foreign Series” tab. Here, I found that they have different television series from all over the world, but they have been dubbed over in Greek. I don’t know why but I found that cool.

It is accessed at http://webtv.ert.gr/ert1/

I chose this because it is a Greek television and news station, and unlike the previous sources I’ve mentioned, this one gives the news in a video format similar to if you were watching the local and national news from your television; that is because the videos are recordings from the television broadcasts.  This is a good source for understanding how information is broadcasted via TV throughout the country, and how it is similar to that of other news stations around the world such as CNN here, BBC in England, and RAI News in Italy. Good for comparisons, really.

 

Process Notes:

If I’m being honest here I just Googled the different types of media that were required and then simply added “Greece” to the searches. After that, I just skimmed through the searches to find sources that I deemed to be reliable or at least the ones that were presentable, easy to navigate and gave an assortment of articles to look at. All while making sure that they were either in English or personally translated to English because while Google Translate may be okay for sources such as my last one where all I needed to translate were the headers, it would not have been good or reliable for entire chunks of text.

Strategy-wise, what worked best was being able to limit my searches to keywords in order to find specific sources, because if I gave too broad of a source or wasn’t clear in what I wanted then I ended up with completely different sources and sites than what I needed.

What I learned from searching all of this, for me at least, is that it was very easy to find international information as long as I knew where to look. I cant say this is the case for everyone, and maybe it is because Greece is a huge historical country, but there were far more sites than I had originally expected there to be. Again, as long as I knew what I was looking for there was a site in Greek about it, and luckily I was able to find English versions of these sites (with the exception of the last one) fairly easily.

What I plan to do for the next draft is to take my time to try to be even more specific in my searches in order to find even better quality sites. I feel as if I lucked out and found some really good ones this go around but maybe next time I will look even harder, read the “About” sections of each site which is honestly a gold mine in terms of the history, values, beliefs, political affiliation, and other information that can help you better understand not only what the site will be posting about, but also makes it easier to know if there are biases in the articles and if they are valid or not. Other than that I plan on utilizing the university libraries site more in order to find more precise and reliable resources, if any.

Greece’s Great Fight for the Future (Written By: Elaine Rigas, Translated By: Veroniki Krikoni)

Greece’s Great Fight for the Future

Blog post by Allen Bryan (Bryan.262)

(Image by psyberartist, September 11, 2013, Omonoia, Athens, Attica. CC 2.0.)

This is an article that was published in 2015 detailing the some of the economic issues Greece has had to face since their [economic] collapse in 2012. The article begins with a quick history of the last time the country came together as a whole to vote on a pressing issue, which, at the time, was one regarding the future of democracy within Greece. Now, nearly 41 years later, the country is coming together once again to vote to either reject or accept a referendum submitted by the European Commission. Without going into great detail about this referendum, if accepted it will essentially bail out the Greek economy in exchange for 2 new austerity measures. These measures are, and I quote: “reforms for the completion of the current program and beyond” and “preliminary debt sustainability analysis.” The remainder of the article was essentially different posts from various citizens and journalists on twitter regarding the incidents that were happening in the country such as pictures of people waiting in line to withdraw money from their banks. Along with these posts, there were also a few additional notes from the author of the article about Europe’s reaction to all of this, the turmoil within the Greek political scene, and lastly, a quick note on what the future may hold.

The evidence used in this article came mostly from the tweets from the citizens and journalists that were both detailing what was happening and also critiquing them as well. Most of the critiques came from the journalists, analysts, and foreign political figures, however, while most of the pictures of what was going on within the country were by the bystanders. The pictures and statements (tweets) made by the public should probably be taken with a grain of salt for a variety of reasons. The first is that I have no way of knowing where the pictures that were used came from, how old they were, or the validity of them, the second reason is that tweets could be photoshopped or edited to say whatever the editor wants, meaning that they may not even be real, and lastly, because many of the tweets were written in Greek and translated afterwards for use in this article, and not knowing Greek I simply have to take the word of the translator that the information given is what the originator of the tweet intended. That being said, they could also very well be valid but more research would need to be done. The journalist, analyst, and political figures, on the other hand, are more valid due to their credibility. The same skepticism applies in terms of the editing of the tweets, however, but the core information and reactions given within them are powerful and detail some of the emotions and criticisms of what was going on in this region a few years ago.

Lastly, when it comes to perspectives, I once more turn to the various tweets that were cited in the article. These tweets not only give us a range of information and possible evidence as stated previously but, if real, they also show a range of perspectives as well. The tweets by the public are more raw to me. By that I mean you can truly see (in the pictures) the sense of emotion people are feeling. In almost all of these pictures, people are waiting, either sitting on a set of stairs or they are in line for the ATM/bank. This sense of “waiting”, “longing”, etc, is prevalent in not only the article but within the entire country as well. After the economic collapse in 2012 many people have been in a sort of ‘limbo’, waiting to see what will happen to them, and I believe this article, and in particular, the tweets from the public do a good job at showing this side of the public. The other tweets by the journalists, analysts, and political figures serve more as a “critical perspective”, that being in the form of criticism of the government of Greece, and in some instances of the Prime Minister and the decisions he’s made. These tweets show more of the frustrations and political impacts rather than the more personal and emotional ones such as those from the public. I believe the inclusion and use of these tweets from the writer of the article was a very good use of social media and it also demonstrates how much of a gold mine sites such as Twitter can be for journalists who, otherwise, would have had to go out to the streets interviewing anyone who would allow it to gather information about the public perspective. I’m certain many reporters did this as well, but the ease of using Twitter to gauge public makes the job that much easier, efficient, and cheaper.