Scroll culture and authoritarian populism: how Turkish and Greek online news aggravate ‘refugee crisis’ tensions

Abstract

News consumers are more likely to inform themselves through digital news outlets and social media ‘newsfeeds’ than physical newspapers [Ofcom. (2022). News Consumption in the UK: 2022. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/241947/News-Consumption-in-the-UK-2022-report.pdf]. Guided by our thumbs, we scroll through news outlets’ homepages and down newsfeeds for information (and entertainment) in what Way. (2021. Trump, memes and the Alt-right: Emotive and affective criticism and praise. The Russian Journal of Linguistics, 25(3), 789–809. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-2021-25-3-789-809) calls ‘scroll culture’. On 27 February 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that he would no longer stop refugees trying to cross into Europe from Türkiye to Greece, ending a 2016 agreement with the EU. In response, the Greek authorities closed their border with a resultant congregation of thousands of refugees. Both Turkish and Greek politicians blamed each other for the crisis, leaning on authoritarian populist discourses prevalent in both countries. Online news outlets on both sides of the border covered the ‘crisis’. In this article, we compare how the openings of stories from online news sites that are widely shared on social media lean on governmental authoritarian and populist discourses. This comparative analysis reveals how nations on different sides of a ‘crisis’ articulate discourses that inflame tensions externally whilst promoting internal power structures.