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This paper first identifies representations of threats in Greek‐Cypriot newspapers related to the negotiations for a Cyprus settlement. Then, it identifies how alternative representations to these core representations of threats are managed through the use of a number of semantic barriers. Therefore, it problematizes the role (function) that such representations of threats play in undermining the potential for transformative dialogue in a post‐conflict and divided country in need of conflict transformation. Focus is on the editorials of two newspapers during a four‐month period before the collapse of the July 2017 Cyprus peace talks. Both were suspicious and polemic vis‐à‐vis the said negotiations but used different strategies to oppose them. Simerini convened recurrently threats such as Turkification, state dissolution and threats against Hellenism. Phileleftheros focused on the issue of security drawing red lines on various dossiers under discussion in the negotiations. The paper contributes to the theoretical debate of the relationship between social representations and identities and the role of threats and historical narratives in undermining transformative dialogue through the use of semantic barriers. 49 4 460 479

Continuous and increasing worldwide migration has sparked an intense social debate in multiple forums. Media play a key role in constructing, monitoring, and framing this debate. This study focuses on a qualitative analysis of the media debate around migration in Cyprus via (a) studying how migrants are represented in the Greek Cypriot Press and (b) assessing, the extent and the way in which favorable and unfavorable representations around migration are in dialogue. Toward this end, thematic and dialogical analyses were conducted on articles published in 4 daily Greek Cypriot newspapers between 2011 and 2015. Findings showed that migrants were constructed in economic (e.g., as assets to economy) and humanitarian (e.g.. as victims) terms in the favorable representations, whereas in the unfavorable ones, migrants were constructed primarily as a threat to the local economy, to security, and to the nation's culture and existence. In terms of the relation between the 2. favorable representations engaged more clearly and in more detail with alternative representations of migrants than unfavorable ones. Favorable representations focused more on countering negative representations of migrants while unfavorable representations focused more on countering negative representations of the authors (e.g., being racist), through disclaimers. Nevertheless, authors of favorable representations managed alternatives by stigmatizing those who held opposing views and did not elaborate on their arguments. These findings speak to the superficial and polarizing character of the debate and point to implications for further research on the relation between the different stances on migration in other forums such as social media and TV.

This study explores the hashtag #IStandWithGreece as part of the meaning-making processes on Twitter around a border crisis at Europe’s periphery, the Greek–Turkish land border. Adopting a network perspective, we located the most influential Twitter accounts using #IStandWithGreece, the communities they formed in the microblog, and other hashtags used to communicate their views in relation to the unfolding events. This allowed the scanning of the broader ideological character of these influencers and their respective communities and, by extent, that of the debate around the hashtag. The study exposes the strategic use of a seemingly innocent hashtag by certain influential actors to disseminate antimigrant stances that cut across national contexts of the Global North.

This paper presents a thematic analysis of a media criticism against the European Union (EU) during the so-called 2015 refugee crisis in one member-state, the Republic of Cyprus. Three inter-related negative representations of Europe were identified in the Greek-Cypriot newspapers studied at the time: inhuman Europe, fragmented Europe and Europe as perpetrator. All three represented Europe as unable or unwilling to deal with a crisis that Europe itself partly caused or reproduced. This media criticism focused on questioning Europe across pessimistic lines without offering or considering alternatives, thus served to reproduce the EU status quo. The paper discusses the implications of these findings in understanding the role of the media in the con-current skepticism towards EU in other member-states. 26 1 105 119

Migration has gradually become a regular topic covered in the national and local Greek-Cypriot media. National media had to accommodate significant changes related to Cyprus’ gradual transformation in the 1990s from a country of emigration to a host country. Notably, from 2012 to the drafting of this report, a period of financial turbulence for the Republic of Cyprus (hereinafter RoC), net migration turned negative, as the country exported more migrants compared to the number of migrants arriving in the country. Despite exceptions, Greek-Cypriot media have thus far been found to infuse with their coverage and reporting, anti-migration sentiments and ideologies. Anti-migrant reporting took place against the backdrop of restrictive migration policies (Trimikliniotis, 2013), inadequate integration policies and practices, including significant shortcomings of the asylum system. In this context, mainstream media and the Press specifically, continue to play a key role in constructing, monitoring, and framing the migration debate in the country, reflecting and/or reinforcing predominant ideologies and perceptions. For this reason, it is important to understand how the media report, frame and analyse migration issues in this specific social context and reflect on the implications of these representations and their diffusion in the society. This report sketches the ways that Greek-Cypriot newspapers addressed the issue of migration between the second half of 2011 to the end of 2015. It focuses on a period marked with financial turmoil for RoC, from July 2011–a year before the country applied for aid at the European Stability Mechanism (ESM)-to December 2015, when the so-called refugee crisis, which unfolded earlier on, was still at its peak4. The aim of this report is twofold. It firstly provides the reader with information about the visibility of the issue in the newspapers studied, for example it presents the number of articles published on issues related to migration and the specific topics that these articles covered along with information on whether their focus was on national matters, international and/or European. Within this section, the report provides information regarding the refugee crisis (2014-2015) and discusses differences with the earlier reporting period (2011-2013). Secondly, the report presents the pro-migrant/anti-migrant debate by exploring favourable and unfavourable arguments towards migration and migrants in the newspapers studied.Specific references are again made to the refugee crisis and how it affected the content of the pro-migration/anti-migration debate.

The study of the media–protest relation ‘is perhaps the oldest and most-travelled trail in studying the media/social movement dynamic’ (McCurdy, 2012, p. 244). Yet although ‘social movements and the protests they launch are essentially visual phenomena’ (Mattoni and Teune, 2014, p. 876), scant attention has been paid so far to the visual as a site of semiotic struggle over media representations by protest movements (exceptions being Corrigall-Brown and Wilkes, 2012; Doerr et al., 2013; Phillips, 2011). Television, as a prime site for visual rhetoric, has been shown to be deeply ambivalent towards protest, oscillating between delegitimising and legitimising practices (Fahlenbrach, 2014). The Cypriot protests in March 2013, addressed in this chapter, failed to evolve into a robust anti-austerity protest movement (Charalambous and Ioannou, forthcoming). As mainstream media constitute an important ‘opportunity structure’ for social movements (Cammaerts, 2012) and define, along with other factors, their dynamics, it is important to study media representations of the Cypriot protests.

This thesis is interested in the relationship between media and national identies in divided Cyprus. It explores how the mainstream media constructed national identifications during a period of intense negotiations for peace settlement, known as “the Annan period”, and the ways in which individual Greek-Cypriots perceive that they used ideas of the nation and national identifications during the said period. In doing so the thesis critically examines the development of media constructed national identities vis-à-vis hegemonic tropes used to explain identity in Cyprus and in particular the Cyprocentrist-Hellenocentrist antagonism. The thesis approaches national identities as processes of “imagining” which are not static perceptions of who one is but may change or be modified in time. Over the last 40 years in Cyprus, the Greek-Cypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot communities have been locked in ongoing yet unsuccessful negotiations for a peace settlement. During most of the post-1974 period, the conflict has been a “calm” one. Focusing in particular on the Greek-Cypriot community, the thesis approaches negotiations as both routine and crisis news events. It foregrounds empirically how, in times of progress in the negotiations, the disputed settlement assumes a media epicentre of national identity discourses which draw and amplify more routinely prevalent national identity discourses. Based on a qualitative analysis and drawing on literature in nationalism and media studies, the thesis has uncovered the complex ways the “national” we was used during the period studied. It shows how media-projected norms of national conformity either closed or shifted the boundaries of we: on the one hand the us/ other binary homogenized opponents but also ourselves and on the other hand the boundaries of we opened up to include the other. The study confirms that neither Cyprocentrism nor Hellenocentrism, are static boundary formations of us and the other. By contrast, media discursive shifts between Hellenocentrism and Cyprocentrism, revealed that the confrontation between nation and state, as two antagonistic nationalistic codes, was not prominent in the said period. The study provides evidence however of exclusionary Cyprocentric constructions of identity premised primarily on uses of the state as a symbolic wall cementing the boundaries of we. In this regard, we explore constructions in the media of the Turkish-Cypriot community as an “absent/present” other as its interests and needs were tailored to project Greek-Cypriots’ own wishes. Yet, the thesis highlights the dislocation of the master dichotomy of us vs. other in media representations during the events which followed the relaxation of bizonal movement restrictions in April 2003. Building on Greek-Cypriots’ own accounts, the thesis concludes that, overall, national imaginings across and within communities become a “political prison” of the ethnic “other”, who becomes an absent/present “other”. But the community doing the “imagining” also tends to remain trapped within such conceptualisations: Participants of the study, about ten years after the referenda, understood the antagonism between Hellenocentrists and Cyprocentrists as being part of political elites’ own struggles for power still many explained how they could not go beyond nationally instigated perceptions about the other or the conflict. Yet this “imprisonment” is neither static nor should it be taken for granted, as there are instances during which otherwise powerful national identifications may break down and unravel in different directions. Additionally, the study shows a novel meta-analysis of nationalism and national identities from the perspective of individuals and in this context we provide evidence of an identity “fatigue” which problematizes further ideas on the naturalization of national identity. Overall, the thesis in answering the central research questions guiding the study, puts forward a claim and an assumption for further investigation. The claim manifested is that Cyprocentrism and Hellenocentrism were not necessarily antithetical during the Annan Period. The assumption is that it is possible in the future, for exclusionary and inclusionary tendencies within Cypriotism to become antagonistic. The exclusionary form tends to focus on civic identity to exclude other communities, not necessarily the Turkish-Cypriots who are in a way often included in this imagining as their presence fortifies the sovereignty of the state. On the other hand, inclusionary Cypriotism, despite emphasizing Cypriotness, remains tolerant towards others. Nevertheless, emphasis on the state should be addressed in other contexts as not merely related to a “civic” identity but also a cultural one. Member of the committee (President): Professor Nicos Demertzis, Associate Professor Christopher Kyriakides, Associate Professor Nicos Trimikliniotis Completed

The present thesis explores main issues regarding school bullying, based\ud firstly on an extensive literature and research review, and secondly on a\ud research study which took place within a period of two academic years, in\ud Nicosia, Cyprus. The study aimed to explore and compare bullying\ud experiences among pupils with learning difficulties (LDs) and typically\ud developing (TD) pupils as match controls, and identify whether learning\ud disabled pupils are bullied on a higher frequency or severity compared to\ud their non-disabled peers. Types of bullying (verbal, physical, and\ud particularly relational) and several factors underpinning these, were\ud investigated. The study also aimed to explore school staff’s views and\ud experiences regarding bullying, and to examine gender and age issues\ud regarding the experiences of the sample in bullying. In addition, it aimed\ud to examine bullying mental health effects on the victims, with a particular\ud focus on its relational type. Lastly, a survey with 620 pupils from the\ud sample schools, aged 9 to 12 years, was conducted to investigate the\ud nature of bullying across the whole population of pupils in these schools\ud at these ages. The sample included six primary inclusive schools located\ud in Nicosia, a number of pupils who participated in the bullying survey\ud (n=620), 12 pupils with LDs and 12 TD pupils aged 9 to 12 years as the\ud main focus groups, and six head teachers and 37 teachers from the sample\ud schools. The data collection tools included the Life in School\ud Questionnaire (LIS) to examine generally the bullying experiences of the\ud samples, the Reynolds Bully Victimization Scales to examine involvement\ud in physical and verbal bullying, and specifically involvement in relational\ud aggressive incidents and mental health effects on the victims. Also, semistructured\ud interviews were conducted to explore in depth the samples’\ud experiences regarding bullying in their schools. The results showed that\ud similar numbers of pupils with and without LDs reported victimization\ud and generally no statistically significant differences were found when\ud comparing the two focus groups. The interviews, on the other hand,\ud identified interesting factors underpinning the LD pupils’ victimization\ud were identified, and important data regarding bullying in Cypriot primary\ud schools were collected.