Beyond the Crisis: Branding Greece

Date: March 31, 2016 Thursday
Time: 11.00-13.00
Place: santralistanbul Campus, E1-301

Speaker: Dr. Lefteris Kretsos (Secretary General of Media and Communication)

The seminar is organized by İstanbul Bilgi University Department of Media in cooperation with the Press and Communication Office of the Consulate General of Greece in İstanbul.

Lecture by The Dr. Lefteris Kretsos, Secretary General of Media and Communication in the State Ministry of Greece. Dr. Kretsos, who worked as Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at the University of Greenwich, talked on the social side effects resulting from the economic crisis in Greece since 2010 and the dramatic impact the crisis had on the image of Greece as depicted through  the foreign media. Dr Kretsos, described how Greece whose “brand name” traditionally was a country of major touristic attraction and cultural heritage, became a country "in crisis”, a country of protests, dramatic fall of income, increase of the poor and mass protests, as well as a country of the highest unemployment and the land suicides. Since 2010 Greece was excessively covered through the foreign media as a ‘country deeply into problems” yet, at the same time the media covered the dramatic changes in the political scene which eventually brought a leftist government into power, the first leftist government in Europe. The recent refugee/migrant crisis which hit Greece (as well as Turkey) both being two transient countries on the way to Western Europe, added another topic to the foreign news coverage of Greece. However, as the issue of what to do with the influx of  migrants/refugees divided Europe deeply and put its human values at test, Greece which under a leftist government displayed a humane approach on the local societal level, offered an opportunity for re-branding Greece as a country whose people, albeit much poorer than before, have empathy towards people in greater need. This new feature in the perception of Greece may be more more meaningful and long standing as it may touch upon multiple levels of foreign media consumers..  

Dr. Kretsos:
Before his official appointment Dr. Kretsos was a Senior Lecturer of Employment Relations and Human Resource Management at the University of Greenwich. He had also worked for the Greek Trade Union Congress and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions as the national correspondent for Greece.