Paper short abstract:

This paper incorporates the criminological frameworks of the sociology of denial and moral panics theory in order to critically analyse the processes under which extremism, political ideology and neo-Nazi identity are politically negotiated, and often legitimised, through media-driven narratives.

Paper long abstract:

This paper incorporates the criminological frameworks of the sociology of denial and moral panics theory in order to critically analyse the legitimising power of the media. The two frameworks will examine the processes under which extremism and political ideology is negotiated through media-driven narratives, as well as the manner under which media orchestrated over-reactions and under-reactions attempt to regulate societal response to extreme-right violence. These frameworks have almost never been applied together to the study of a phenomenon and their successful analysis can provide criminologists with valuable findings on the legitimising power of the media in regards to extreme-right violence. Furthermore, this essay will use the Greek neo-Nazi party and criminal organisation, Golden Dawn, and its depiction by the media as a case study. For this research, document and discourse analysis of 13 Greek newspaper articles were used. The findings concluded that statements of denial in regards to the neo-Nazi identity and criminal behaviour of the party were facilitated with exaggerated reports of the criminality of immigrants and refugees. Furthermore, the results of the research indicate that the media, indeed, have the power to legitimise criminal organisations, rationalize their ideologically motivated violence, and assign to them the false role of a folk ‘hero’. Lastly, this paper encourages further research on the concepts of denial and moral panics in regards to mass-media justifications and can serve as a starting point for the analysis of the interplay between the two theoretical frameworks.