Professional Documents
Culture Documents
KAPODISTRIAN
UNIVERSITY OF
AT H E N S
FA C U LT Y O F
C O M M U N I C AT I O N
AND MEDIA STUDIES
Villains, victims and heroes: the
representation of pornography in
contemporary Greek press
•Maps the attitudes towards pornography in the
Greek press (i.e in an overtly sexualized everyday
culture, what kind of representations does the Greek
press reserve for pornography?)
•Briefly discusses how popular perceptions of porn
have changed over the past few years (online
pornography seen as something other than harmful)
•We are particularly interested in depictions of child
internet pornography and the potential demonization
of online culture in Greece.
Our hypothesis:
•In a culture where a mainstreaming of
pornography is attested and where sex
clearly sells, pornography, and online
pornography especially, might not be
portrayed by the national press as
something exclusively negative and
condemnable; and that this kind of
intolerance would be associated with
child pornography news stories only.
Questions explored :
•How do the Greek print media present news about pornography,
child pornography, online pornography, sexual harassment, sexual
abuse, sexual tourism and trafficking?
•What kinds of mediated notions of online pornography, especially
of child internet pornography, do they construct?
•To what extent does the Greek press fuel an ongoing media panic
related to the use of new technologies by young people, instead of
putting forward the creative and constructive uses of the internet
for the young?
Questions explored :
•Is there a significant difference as to how
pornography stories are covered between the more
serious titles and the scandal‐mongering ones?
•When stories break out, what kind of information
regarding victims and perpetrators is provided for the
public?
•Does the Greek press have any policy
recommendations to offer on the issue of online
pornography?
Contextualizing online pornography
• History of pornography and efforts to
suppress it inextricably bound up with
rise of new media and the emergence of
democracy
• In that respect, it should come as no
surprise that the Internet ‐ the most
democratic of media ‐ would lead to new
calls for censorship
Sheer magnitude of the porn industry
New ICTs have opened the floodgates for
the sexual exploitation of women
Online pornography changes how
sexuality is articulated within private and
public spaces
The porn industry incorporates new
patterns of production and distribution
Not everyone sees online pornography as necessarily
degrading:
For some feminists, cyberspace is installing a new regime
of sexual representation
Also from a libertarian feminist perspective: censoring
pornography would constitute breaching of the right to free
speech
Least we forget: research into mainstream pornography
and human trafficking does not exclude analysis of
alternative pornographies
Internet pornography plays a crucial role in the
formulation of underground sexual selves and relations
[e.g. ‘The Art and Politics of Netporn’ (2005) and ‘C’Lick Me’
(2007) conferences in the Netherlands ‐introducing ‘DIY
online eroticism’ ]
Naturalization of pornography into everyday life
• A trickling‐down of pornography to
mainstream culture => ‘pornification of
culture’
• Changing attitudes towards privacy and
personal exposure amongst the younger
generations, as experienced in the proliferation
of YouTube and MySpace video feeds
• Sexualization of contemporary Greek culture
(e.g. TV and radio commercials, reality shows,
street fashion)
The representation of pornography in the Greek
press
Methodology:
• Content analysis of five national dailies: Kathimerini,
Eleftheros Tipos, Ta Nea, Eleftherotipia and Espresso
(pilot study).
• Sample population = 247 news stories (every other
month between August 2007 ‐ June 2008.
• Collected all articles that mentioned the keywords:
pornography, online pornography, child pornography, as
well as related terms such as sexual harassment,
prostitution, sexual assault, trafficking and sexual
tourism.
• 45 variables used in the analysis
Subject Angle
(weekdays)
40,0% 36%
35,0% 33%
31%
30,0% 27%
25,0% 27%
20%
20,0%
15% 16% 16%
15,0% 13% Kathimerini
10,0% Eleftherotipia
5,0% Eleftheros Typos
0,0% TA NEA
Espresso
Subject Angle
(weekend)
44%
45,0%
40,0%
35,0%
33%
30,0%
25% 25%
25,0% 22% 22% 22% 22%
20% 20%
20,0%
15,0% 11%
10,0% Kathimerini
5,0% Eleftherotipia
0,0% Eleftheros Typos
TA NEA
Espresso
Subject Angle Framing
(weekdays)
70,0% 67%
62%
60,0%
50% 50%
50,0%
40,0% 35%
33%
30,0%
27%
20,0%
Conflict
10,0% Human Interest
Responsibility attribute
0,0%
Issue of Morality
Economic Consequences
Neutral
Subject Angle Framing
(weekend)
internet pornography with references to
sexual exploitation/sex tourism 100%
online child pornography with references to
sexual harassement/sexual abuse/sexual … 38%
sex tourism
100%
Neutral
sexual exploitation/prostitution/trafficking
36% Economic Consequences
Issue of Morality
sexual abuse
Responsibility attribute
Human Interest
sexual harassement Conflict
29%
online child pornography
43%
internet pornography
100%
pornography in general
50%
Subject Angle Relevance
(weekdays)
100%
100,0% 96%
90,0% 85%
80,0%
70,0%
67%
60,0% 54%
50% 50%
50,0%
40,0%
30,0%
20,0%
10,0% Topic not mentioned
0,0% Main Topic
Topic mentioned in passing
Subject Angle Relevance
(weekend)
internet pornography with references
to sexual exploitation/sex tourism 100%
online child pornography with
references to sexual …
50%
sex tourism
sexual
exploitation/prostitution/trafficking 93%
Topic mentioned in passing
sexual abuse Main Topic
Topic not mentioned
sexual harassement
online child pornography 71%
100%
internet pornography
pornography in general 63%
The representation of pornography in the Greek press
Personal Data on Perpetrator
(weekdays)
90,0%
82%
80,0%
74% 75%
70,0% 66%
60,0%
50,0% NO
NAME
40,0% RESIDENCE
PLACE OF WORK
30,0% NATIONALITY
25%
22%
20,0%
7% 9%
10,0%
0,0%
90,0%
80,0%
NO
50,0%
NAME
RESIDENCE
40,0%
33% NATIONALITY
30,0%
22%
17% 19%
20,0%
11%
10,0%
0,0%
60,0%
50,0%
45%
40% 39%
40,0% Kathimerini
33% Eleftherotipia
Eleftheros Typos
30,0% 27% TA NEA
Espresso
20,0% 17%
13%
10%
10,0%
0,0%
No Neutral Yes, negative in general Yes, positive in general Both negative and
positive
Journalistic Stance
(weekend)
70,0%
60%
60,0% 56%
50,0% 44%
40%
40,0% Kathimerini
33% 33%
30,0% Eleftherotipia
25% 22%
20% Eleftheros Typos
20,0% 15%
11% TA NEA
8%
10,0% Espresso
0,0%
No Neutral Yes, Yes, Both
negative positive negative
in general in general and
positive
Conclusions‐ emerging trends
• Pornography (i.e. child pornography; internet pornography)
under‐discussed, under‐represented in the Greek press
• When talking about ‘pornography’, the Greek press usually
refers to porn as artistic expression
• Child pornography and online pornography are discussed as
something evil while porn is presented as an alternative way
of expression.
• Journalists usually take a precautionary position, advising
parental supervision of children’s use of new technologies
(rather than mediation);
• They also rarely fail to outline the multiple risks associated with
internet surfing ‐no mentioning of constructive uses of online
technologies => print media discourse in Greece reproduces a
stereotypically pessimistic vision of new technologies
• Journalistic discourse usually involves a surface coverage of
events occurred, academic conferences, new legislation etc;
extensive and in‐depth analysis and research is largely absent.
Similarly, no policy recommendations as to how to deal with
regulatory gaps are offered.