Communication geography and the spatio-discursive construction of BRI projects: Geographical frames in media discourses on Piraeus Port

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has garnered significant attention from geographers worldwide, yet few have focused on its communicative aspects. This article examines the BRI from a communication geography perspective that integrates media studies and geographical analysis. We focus on the role of media narratives in the spatio-discursive construction of a flagship BRI project—Piraeus Port in Greece. This construction involves a complex, competitive process among media outlets in different countries. Based on framing theory, we analysed 519 online news articles about Piraeus Port, written in Greek and English and originating from five countries (China, France, Greece, the UK, and the US), to reveal four major geographical frames: geopolitics, geoeconomics, local development, and governance. These frames operate at different scales, invoke different spatial imaginaries, and frame Piraeus Port differently as a symbol of peaceful coexistence, a geopolitical hotspot amid intensifying China—US tensions, a harbinger of economic prosperity, a local space of everyday life and production undergoing transformation, and a zone of exception marked by illicit activities. We further conducted a cross-country analysis and found that, while most news coverage adopted a positive view of the port project, Western media outlets were more critical than their Chinese counterparts.