Greek leaders failed to convince – media image worse than in 2010

Media analysis on Greece: January 1, 2007 – June 24, 2015

Rapperswil, June 28, 2015: One competence is key in democracies – one needs to be able to convince others. In this core capacity the new Greek government has failed dramatically: “With Syriza winning the country’s general election on January 25, 2015, tonality dropped significantly. Not because there had been a lack of sympathy in the media across Europe – rather to the contrary” explains Dr. Christian Kolmer, Head of Political Research at Media Tenor International with regard to the long-term media trend since January 2007.

“The two dominant personalities who drew coverage on Greece are the country’s new Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, and finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis. Both of them started as new stars who should be given all chances – but both managed to turn this unique goodwill into its opposite. So they ended up being framed in the media as the two whom it is not worth listening to - as they fail to convince others about what they want” says Dr. Kolmer. One week ahead of the new referendum both ended in the international media as the “bad boys” of the Euro zone. “Soaring reports about the Greek government being unable to communicate with the other elected leaders within the European Community have made it most difficult for the other Euro zone governments to convince their voters from the merits of the eventual outcome of the negotiations – regardless of the eventual decision. The Greek politicians obviously thought they could ignore the fundament of democracy – coming up with a convincing narrative” concludes Dr. Kolmer.

These results are based on an analysis of 354,563 reports in global financial print media, 39,945 reports in analyst print media and 3,302,579 reports in Global TV news coverage across 27 channels. The research has been gathered from the beginning of 2007 until June 24, 2015. For 20 years, Media Tenor’s mission has been to contribute to objective, diverse and newsworthy reporting by bringing together the diverse parties who impact and are affected by the news.

For additional information, or to schedule an interview with Media Tenor, please contact: Dr. Christian Kolmer +49 176 19 13 45 12, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.