Contents – Autumn 2026

Dési, János:

Is There Life after Death?

The left-wing broadsheet Népszava, with a history spanning over more than a century and a half, ceased publication following the opposition's victory. This is because, surprisingly, the Orbán Government had been funding it in recent times via state advertising, including full-page ads naming the European Union and George Soros as the enemy. Meanwhile, the daily's articles continued to strongly criticise the Orbán Regime. The new government, understandably, suspended the broadsheet's funding, and Népszava collapsed financially. This paper, written from the insider's perspective, argues that Népszava has been a political product since the political transformation of 1990. Those who supported, operated and financed it never even attempted to run it based on the market. As soon as the political interest ceased to exist, so did Népszava. Today, national political dailies are no longer available in print in Hungary.

Keywords: daily papers, newspaper publishing, print newspapers, privatisation

Kiss, László:

The construction of narrative space and the political field

This study analyses the online media representation of the 2026 Hungarian election campaign using network analysis tools. It focuses on the political actor networks of five national news sites (hirado.hu, origo.hu, index.hu, telex.hu and 444.hu), specifically examining 50-actor networks. By exploring co-mention networks, it aims to uncover the structure of narrative centres, centre/periphery relationships, bridging actors and the connections between domestic political and geopolitical fields. Its findings indicate that while the media outlets largely feature the same political actors, they create distinct narrative frameworks. Pro-government media present the campaign as a cohesive geopolitical conflict, whereas news sites critical of the Orbán Government develop more nuanced and diversified political meanings.

Keywords: geopolitics, media representation, narrative space, network analysis, political communication

Bayer, Judit:

Who Speaks When AI Writes?

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence into the media ecosystem marks a structural transformation of public communication. What began as algorithmic assistance in data-driven reporting—sports, finance, weather—has evolved into systems capable of producing persuasive, human-like text, images and audiovisual content across virtually any domain. This paper situates generative AI (GenAI) within the legal and ethical architecture of journalism, highlighting that the technology destabilises foundational assumptions about authorship, accountability and the nature of expression itself. The paper relies on a graduated model of AI involvement, distinguishing between assistive, transformative and fully generative uses. This spectrum is not merely descriptive but also normative, as legal responsibility and ethical expectations intensify with the degree of machine autonomy. Particularly in fully generative contexts, questions of liability, copyright and editorial accountability become acute. The apparent autonomy of AI, however, remains partly illusory: human input persists at every stage, from training via prompting to editorial oversight. The analysis identifies three interrelated areas of ethical challenge. The first is connected to journalistic ethics and consist of three elements: transparency that aims to preserve trust and accountability both in terms of training data and output disclosure; the journalistic standard of accuracy is systematically challenged by the heightened risk of misinformation, hallucinations and unverifiable sources, raising the duty of verification to a whole new level. The second area of ethical concern is bias and discrimination that persist within and get extrapolated by generative systems, reflecting structural inequalities embedded in training data. Finally, labour implications raise concerns about the displacement of journalists and the erosion of professional autonomy.

Keywords: AI Act, ChatGPT, generative AI, journalism, media

Egres, Dorottya:

Argumentative affordances

Social media platforms have become important sites for public debate. Since opinion expression in the digital public sphere is often argumentative in nature, i.e. it involves the justification and contestation of standpoints, the technical characteristics of platforms shape, in addition to the forms of communication, the structure of arguments, the dynamics of argumentative interaction and the visibility of contributions. To address this issue, this paper introduces the concept of argumentative affordances and develops a four-dimensional typology encompassing the affordances of argument construction, connection, salience and participation. Further, it shows how these affordances operate at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels and how, when configured together, they jointly shape the opportunities and constraints of online argumentation. The proposed conceptual and analytical framework seeks to strengthen the dialogue between argumentation theory and research on digital media and platforms.

Keywords: affordance, argumentation, online debates, platform studies, social media

Pintér, Róbert:

Journalism and changing communication technologies

This paper reviews the most important changes in the relationship between journalism and communication technologies in the past 25 years, i.e. since the establishment of the Hungarian media studies quarterly Médiakutató (The Media Researcher). It argues that the most important changes have not occurred in the production of news content, but its distribution, the business models of the media and the transforming gatekeeping role of journalists. The rise of platforms, algorithmic mediation and the attention economy has exposed news media to new forms of dependency, while the fragmentation of the shared information space and the growing influence of newsinfluencers have created additional challenges for journalists, editorial teams, media companies and the democratic public sphere. This article also briefly summarises contemporary approaches to media effects, with particular attention paid to the concepts of filter bubbles, echo chambers, affordances and the attention economy. Finally, it outlines possible short- and long-term scenarios for the future of journalism, with a focus on the expanding role of generative artificial intelligence.

Keywords: algorithms, gatekeeper, information and communication technology, journalism, platform economy

Sz. Nagy, Gábor:

Propaganda vs. reality in letters received by Hungarian Radio in 1952 and 1953

This study provides an overview of the letters that listeners sent to Hungarian Radio in 1952 and 1953. It examines the criticisms expressed in these letters regarding the programmes and opinions broadcast on Hungarian Radio and highlights the tensions between party propaganda and the realities of everyday life. To this end, it present the information policy of the period and explores interactions between the communicator and audiences through the example of the listeners' correspondence movement.

Keywords: correspondence movement, Hungarian Radio, listeners' letters, propaganda, Rákosi Era