Exercising control in media during Covid-19: the "Stay at Home" campaign on Twitter in Greece

The study examines perceptions of Greece’s 2020 "Stay at Home" ("Petsas’ List") media funding campaign, initiated to support financially stressed outlets and promote public health messaging during Covid-19. In Greece’s highly concentrated and clientelistic media system, this campaign was widely viewed as a tool for manipulation, with reports of funds excluding critical outlets, distributing to non-existent websites, and generally favoring pro-government media. Against a backdrop of broader democratic backsliding and weakened media freedom in Greece and parts of Europe, the paper explores how Twitter users framed the relationship between the government and the campaign, focusing on us-versus-them constructions and implications for media independence and public trust. Using this context, the study poses the research question: How did Twitter users employing the hashtag #Petsas_list (#Λιστα_Πετσα) portray the relationship between the government and the "Stay at Home" Campaign? The purpose is to understand how controversial, non-transparent funding can undermine media independence and fuel anti-media sentiment, contributing to concerns about democratic recession and the erosion of the media’s watchdog role.

The paper situates Greece’s case within broader global patterns of media subsidization and control during Covid-19. Across Europe and beyond, state support to media was often criticized for opacity and politicization, aligning with right-wing populist strategies to manipulate coverage and discredit journalism under the guise of combating misinformation. The Greek media system’s longstanding clientelism and concentration (politicians, journalists, and owners interlinked) have undermined professionalism and watchdog functions. Internationally, examples include Austria under Sebastian Kurz (alleged illicit funding for favorable coverage), Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and the Philippines under Duterte (license revocations). Digitization and hybrid media dynamics have intensified external interference and debates over media’s role in democratic decline. In Greece under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, media freedom indicators deteriorated significantly (e.g., RSF ranking drop), amid surveillance allegations and broader democratic backsliding flagged by V-Dem. Greece also enacted a contentious "fake news" law during the pandemic, initially vague and punitive (amended later but still allowing imprisonment), raising concerns from journalists’ unions and press freedom groups about potential chilling effects. In public discourse, outlets benefiting from the Petsas List were derisively labeled "Petsomena/Petsomena Media" (Πετσομένα Μέσα), a term used to criticize perceived pro-government coverage across multiple events (wildfires, vaccine-related reporting, train crash), reinforcing polarization and anti-media sentiment.

Design: Qualitative Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA), a form of Critical Discourse Analysis per Van Dijk (1995, 2013), focusing on ideological actor descriptions and us-versus-them constructions (dramatization, fallacies, positive ingroup vs. negative outgroup representations). Data: 1,632 tweets using the relevant Greek hashtag about the Petsas List (reported as #Petsas_list/#Λιστα_Πετσα; also referenced as #List_Petsa/#Λιστα_Πετσα) on Twitter. Collection: Manual capture of all tweets with the hashtag within the timeframe. Timeframe: September–November 2020, spanning Greece’s second lockdown and circulating rumors of a new media support campaign. Procedure: The corpus was read in full; representative exemplars were selected to illustrate identified constructions. Analytical focus: Two core categories emerged—(a) the "Petsas’ List" as a tool for controlling the media; (b) support to the government by corrupted media and journalists. Research question: How did the Twitter users of the hashtag #Petsas_list (#Λιστα_Πετσα) portray the relationship between the government and the "Stay at Home" Campaign? Ethical/data: Dataset not shared due to GDPR, as it contained user names; no human subjects, thus no ethical approval or informed consent required.

- Twitter discourse framed the Petsas List as a mechanism of media control: Users portrayed Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and prominent ministers (e.g., Adonis Georgiadis) as directing coverage, alleging that funding bought favorable narratives. Dramatization and fallacious reasoning were common, depicting the government-media nexus as a threat to democracy. - Anti-media sentiment was generalized: Journalists and outlets were broadly labeled corrupt (e.g., “mm_stinker” tags), with accusations that media hid scandals and attacked opposition figures (e.g., Alexis Tsipras). Some tweets urged electoral responses (vote SYRIZA), reflecting polarization. - Hyperbolic depictions of the state: Some users likened Greece to a “junta” or “mafia” state and accused regulatory authorities of shielding opacity—illustrating heightened mistrust, even if exaggerated. - Recognition of watchdog journalism: A minority of cases praised journalists who publicly challenged officials (e.g., Rania Tzima), reflecting a residual ideal of independent, accountability-focused reporting. - Preference for foreign coverage: Users cited outlets like the Financial Times as more reliable on sensitive policy matters, implying Greek media’s failure to inform due to compromised independence. - Overall: The discourse suggests that controversial, non-transparent financial support during the pandemic fueled perceptions of collusion, undermined trust in media independence, and amplified anti-media narratives consistent with broader patterns in polarized and populist contexts.

Findings address the research question by showing that Twitter users widely constructed the Petsas List as emblematic of a government-media alliance, with funding perceived as a lever to influence agenda setting, suppress criticism, and delegitimize opposition. This aligns with Greece’s structural media issues (clientelism, concentration) and global trends of populist pressure on press freedom during Covid-19. The prevalent use of dramatization and fallacies reveals how online discourse amplifies us-versus-them dynamics, intensifying distrust and weakening media legitimacy. The recognition of individual watchdog efforts suggests the public still values independent journalism, yet generalized accusations against the media may further erode the press’s societal role as the Fourth Estate. The Greek case illustrates how opaque subsidies risk deepening democratic backsliding by damaging media credibility, fragmenting the public sphere, and normalizing narratives that justify constraints on critical reporting. Social media both disseminates anti-media sentiment and provides venues for accountability claims, highlighting a dual role in contemporary information ecosystems.

The study shows that Greece’s “Stay at Home” (Petsas) media funding, perceived as opaque and politically biased, was framed on Twitter as a tool of media manipulation, reinforcing anti-media sentiment and undermining perceptions of journalistic independence during Covid-19. These dynamics contribute to democratic erosion by delegitimizing the media’s watchdog function and empowering polarizing, populist narratives. The paper contributes to scholarship on media independence and democratic backsliding by analyzing ideological constructions in an under-studied national context. It calls for transparent, equitable media policies and further research across countries on how state funding schemes affect media autonomy, public trust, and online discourse, especially in environments facing democratic decline.

The analysis is limited to the Greek case and to Twitter discourse during September–November 2020. It relies on qualitative IDA of a hashtag-defined corpus, which may not represent broader public opinion or other platforms/media. Manual collection and exemplar-based reporting may omit nuances present in the full dataset. Generalizability is limited; comparative studies of similar funding schemes in other contexts are needed.