Abstract
This article compares how the British and Greek national press debated the phenomenon of low fertility between 2001 and 2009. Specifically, it presents an overview of each set of newspapers’ perspectives on the issue, and the most prevalent causes, consequences and solutions with which they associated it. Differences between the print media’s representations are not only attributed to the distinct ‘policy climate’ and ‘demographic experience’ of each country but also to culturally specific ideologies concerning the nation, gender, motherhood and personhood. Newspapers do not simply mirror reality but also help to construct it by legitimising dominant discourses about how persons, especially women, ought to manage their fertility. Studying the media is, therefore, a means of understanding the broader contexts in which individuals’ reproductive lives are shaped and experienced.
Résumé
Cet article compare les modalités selon lesquelles les presses nationales britannique et grecque ont débattu du phénomène de faible fécondité au cours de la période 2001–2009. Plus précisément, il donne une vue d’ensemble des opinions d’une série de journaux sur les causes, les conséquences et les solutions les plus fréquemment décrites associées à ce phénomène. Les différences de représentations dans les presses écrites ne sont pas seulement attribuées au « climat politique » et à « l’expérience démographique » propres à chaque pays mais aussi aux idéologies spécifiques et culturellement construites relatives à la nation, au genre, à la maternité et à l’individu. Les journaux ne reflètent pas seulement la réalité, ils aident également à la construire en légitimant les discours dominants relatifs à la manière dont les individus, et spécialement les femmes, devraient gérer leurs vies reproductives. Analyser le contenu des medias est un outil permettant de comprendre les contextes plus vastes dans lesquels les vies reproductives des individus sont façonnées et vécues.
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Notes
This information is based on the latest UK and Greek newspaper circulation figures published by ABC (www.abc.org.uk) and EIHEA (www.eihea.gr), respectively.
Ta Nea does not have a Sunday edition.
Readers’ letters were treated as articles.
As some articles suggested a combination of reasons, effects and measures, they were counted more than once.
The politicians in question were: David Willetts, the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who, in 2003, said that the key to the pensions crisis and to economic growth was for Britons to have more children, and Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, who in 2004 suggested that people should reproduce for the social and economic success of the country.
The two other main events comprising the ‘demographic [issue]’ or ‘problem’ were the rise in life expectancy, which leads to an ageing society, and the increase in the country’s immigrant population.
In 2008, the population of Greece grew to just over 11 million. However, the latest figures reveal that deaths were more numerous than births between 1998 and 2003 (Eurostat 2010). Although there has been natural population change since (Eurostat 2010), 17.4% of the total number of births between 2004 and 2008 was due to immigrants (Drettakis 2006a, b). In contrast, the population of the United Kingdom was just over 61 million in 2008 (ONS 2010). Although net migration had been the main driver of population change between 1999 and 2008, natural population change was the leading contributor to population growth until mid-1999, whilst accounting for over 50% of it in 2008 (ONS 2010).
Protected by the Constitution and the Supreme Confederation of Multi-Child Parents of Greece (A.S.P.E.), families with four children or more, otherwise known as the polyteknoi (‘multi-child families’), received numerous government benefits (for example, a lifetime pension for the mother and savings on their electricity, water and council tax bills). In 2002 the Greek Conservative Party, Nea Demokratia, had made a pre-election pledge to extend the benefits entitled to the polyteknoi to those with just three children (‘triteknoi’). However it had failed to deliver fully on its promises once in power and, as a result, was subject to widespread criticism in the newspapers (Moutousi et al. 2005; Drettakis 2006a, b, Eleftherotypia).
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Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the support of the Economic and Social Research Council for providing me with the funding to carry out the research on which this article is based. I want to thank Dr. Ernestina Coast for her guidance, as well as Dr. Sara Randall and Professor Nanneke Redclift for theirs, on earlier versions of this article. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback, as well as to Professor Charles Hirschman and Professor Mary C. Brinton for their input during the presentation of a synopsis of this article at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America in Dallas, Texas. Finally, thanks to Nick Paleocrassas for his role in editing the final draft.
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Georgiadis, K. Fertile Debates: A Comparative Account of Low Fertility in the British and Greek National Press. Eur J Population 27, 243–262 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-010-9224-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-010-9224-8