Badran Aljohani: 5-Step Critical Analysis Process




            TITLE: 'Greek PM accused of breaking coronavirus lockdown rules — again' is an article written by Necktaria Stamouli and is uploaded on the POLITICO web page. The following text will be a 5-step critical analysis of the article.




Description: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis sets a bad example to the people of Greek by violating his own government’s laws and regulations in regards to coronavirus and lockdown. The article immediately begins with the event that caused the prime minister of greek to receive heavy backlash. News started circulating on social media showing the minister attending a gathering of approximately 40 people and one of them is a local member of the parliament Christodoulos Stefanadis who is also ironically a doctor. Moreover, the article began to add gas on the fire by mentioning that this event took place after the first weekend of tough new restrictions and a curfew of 6pm. 


Analysis: In the header, the first thing someone would be able to pinpoint is the word “again”. Thus stating this isn’t some lousy mistake that happened one time by accident, it has happened before. Also, throughout the article, words like “arrogant” and “irresponsible” are mentioned more than once. What this tells us is that the writer believes that the prime minister is at fault and wants everyone who reads this article to think so as well. Moreover, the author states “Nearly 6,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Greece so far and over 260 people are currently in intensive care.” (Stamouli, 2021) in order to show how serious the situation is and that there are families out there grieving due to this virus, while their prime minister is not following his own government's restrictions. 


Interpretation: After analyzing the patterns we have found, we can see that the author isn’t going against the prime minister out of hate but rather out of concern and worry for the people of Greek. Nektaria Stamouli doesn’t directly call the prime minister “arrogant” or “irresponsible” but rather he quotes other important figures who have said it, as a way of saying “I blame him as well but don’t hear it from me.” Furthermore, mentioning the people who are suffering because of this pandemic shows us that the author is being sympathetic towards the people while the people in power aren’t following rules.

Evaluation: In my humble opinion, I think the message is fair and it's morally ethical to talk about and show the people what a bad example the people in power can be. They seem to lack seriousness about this pandemic while the citizens are facing the consequences of the restrictions. Families who live not very far from each other can not see each other due to the regulations and lockdown. What makes it worse, the people are fined from €300-€3000 if they don't follow the rules. However, the prime minister hasn’t paid a single penny.


Engagement: In order to make a change, what I think we should do is either set up petitions for the prime minister to take full responsibility for his actions or spread this message throughout social media and if it reaches the right people hopefully the prime minister suffers the consequences.



References

Stamouli, N. (2021, February 07). Greek PM accused of breaking coronavirus lockdown rules - again. Retrieved from https://www.politico.eu/article/greek-prime-minister-kyriakos-mitsotakis-accused-of-breaking-coronavirus-lockdown-rules-again/


Comments

  1. Very good analysis of Dimitri's selected article Badran! You do a very good job here emphasizing how the use of language might signal some kind of media bias, however, I agree that overall, the item is denouncing irresponsible behaviour from a PM that should be setting example. This, can be seen as a pedagogical exercise. I really like your suggestion for engagement, which involves direct civic engagement Badran, well done.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment