Media, Nationalism and the Negotiation of Inter-Ethnic Peace in Cyprus

This paper examines forms of nationalism and representations of national identity in Greek-Cypriot media coverage of peace negotiations related to Cyprus – the Eastern Mediterranean island divided “ethnically” between Turkish-Cypriots in the north and Greek-Cypriots in the south since 1974. Building on existing theories of the media’s role in the reproduction of nationalism, this study suggests that media representations of national identity should be addressed in both “routine” and “hot” periods so as to unpack their intersections. Divided Cyprus provides a unique case which furthers our understanding of the media’s role in these processes. Focusing in particular on the Greek-Cypriot media, the paper presents the results of a qualitative study which support the argument that protracted negotiations can be differentiated between routine and crisis media events infused with discourses of nationalism. Specifically, we explore how negotiations function as routine and crisis media events in the “everyday”. Second, we examine how televised presidential speeches related to the disputed solution discursively reproduce divided intra-community power relations
and how national identities are used to this end. Third, we locate the representational boundaries of the national we constructed by the Greek-Cypriot press in a hot period - the Annan Period - during which referenda were conducted for the first time on a UN proposed plan subsequently rejected by the majority of Greek-Cypriots and accepted by the majority of Turkish-Cypriots. Through unit and data triangulation, we explore the various ways in which the media engage in the reproduction of national identities and forms of nationalism in the Greek-Cypriot community. We examine the media construction of national identities by critically unpacking hegemonic tropes - in particular the Cyprocentrist-Hellenocentrist antagonism - used to explain Greek-Cypriot identity in Cyprus