Mediating Patriotism and Triumph through the National Press: Newspaper Content and Journalistic Perceptions

Abstract

Patriotism and triumph are directly affiliated to historical memories and to every country’s history, since every nation / society’s need to proclaim its national achievements in every aspect of daily life, from politics to economy, science and beyond. Following several countries’ turbulent history, since their origins, traditionally the media tend to express the feeling of patriotism that overwhelms the local society. In this perspective, patriotism and triumph concerning national achievements seem to be among the traditional characteristics in the journalistic content of the press. However, although evident in the media content, it is not yet identified in what extend they exist and through which characteristics. This papers addresses these two issues in the content of the current national press in Cyprus, aiming to examine the specific characteristics of patriotism and triumph and the extend up to which they are evident today in the journalistic practices. Taking into account the loyal – facilitator model of journalism, the research is based both on content analysis of the national newspapers with the higher circulation and on a survey concerning the journalists’ opinion that work for these newspapers. The sample of content analysis includes an extensive number of news items, since the research was conducted in a two years period of time, while more than two thirds of the journalists working in these newspapers participated in the survey. The aim of this paper is to clarify whether the national press remains attached to practices of the past or new modes of journalism have arisen.