Foreign Policy on the Internet. The Case of the Prespa Agreement

Abstract

The Prespa Agreement is connected with the Macedonian issue, which has been a long-standing, intricate and controversial one within the Greek public sphere so far. In the academic debate it is widely recognized that the Macedonian issue has been covered not only in a nation-centered way in/by the Greek media, but furthermore in a strongly nationalistic one. Thus, the subject of the present effort is to study the ideology and the discourse of nationalism through their manifestations in the Greek news websites concerning the Prespa Agreement. According to my analysis, which is based on qualitative methods, the changes detected throughout the research sample regarding the media coverage of the subject under investigation are mainly attributed not to a profound transformation of the way media cover the foreign policy affairs in Greece so far, nor to the internet as a new medium, but to the fact that the Greek media have realized that the Macedonian issue is not the proper one to demonstrate the ideology and the discourse of nationalism through it anymore.