ABSTRACT

The Mati (Greece) wildfire of 23 July 2018 received extensive news coverage. It dominated the Greek public discourse for several years to the extent that it was ascribed to being used as a tool for electoral power. In spite of its significance, no research has focused on investigating the news coverage of this event. This research paper examines the news discourse of the Mati Wildfire by studying 1,573 news articles, using ideological discourse analysis (IDA). It analyzes the dominant narratives and constructions of the nine most prominent news websites in Greece and reveals if there is a systemic undermining of human impact on the environment. The findings showed that the news outlets did not cover the wildfire as an environmental event, but rather a political issue. The disseminated constructions were of a populistic discourse that supported a polarized logic of a positive image for a particular group (i.e., the main opposition party) and a negative one for the outgroup (i.e., the then-government). As a result, the study emphasizes how crucial it is for journalists to critically explain the role and effects of human activity on the environment (Anthropocene), instead of simply focusing on political or otherwise discussion of events.

摘要

2018 年 7 月 23 日的马蒂（希腊）野火得到了广泛的新闻报道。几年来，它在希腊公共话语中占据主导地位，以至于它被归咎于被用作选举权力的工具。尽管具有重要意义，但没有研究集中于调查这一事件的新闻报道。本研究论文使用意识形态话语分析 (IDA) 通过研究 1,573 篇新闻文章来检验马蒂野火的新闻话语。它分析了希腊九个最著名的新闻网站的主要叙述和结构，并揭示了人类对环境的影响是否存在系统性破坏。调查结果表明，新闻媒体并未将野火视为环境事件，而是将其视为政治问题。传播的建构是一种民粹主义话语，支持特定群体（即主要反对党）的正面形象和外围群体（即当时的政府）的负面形象的两极分化逻辑。因此，该研究强调了记者批判性地解释人类活动对环境（人类世）的作用和影响的重要性，而不是仅仅关注政治或其他事件的讨论。