Contents – Winter 2023

Huszti-Szlama, Gabriella Zsófia:

”There was a stampede, the crowd shouted abuse and then ripped their clothes off...”

In recent years, the concept of moral panics has been in the spotlight of interest again, mainly because of issues linked with current politics, society, the economy, and culture such as migration, artificial intelligence, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The term was first used in 1971 by Jock Young, and the theoretical framework was developed by Stanley Cohen. Most researchers used the concept to analyse contemporary changes, but it has also been used to study historical themes such as witch hunting and the widespread garottings in London in the mid-19th century. In the context of the historical extension of this term, the paper will look into the moral panic caused by women’s trousers in the Hungarian press between 1896 and 1914.

Keywords: dressing, fashion, moral panic, turn of the century, women wearing trousers

Paár, Ádám:

The Agrarian movement, the journal Köztelek and the USA (1892–1908)

In the late 1800s, when the USA became the leading economic and military power, a new Hungarian political group described as ‘agrarian’ began to look into American life, politics and economics. The Agrarians criticised the Hungarian governments for their exaggerated support granted to the industries and for ignoring the interests of the peasant population. The Agrarians refused to establish a political party of their own, and represented and popularised their values and ideas via their press. Their representative journal, Köztelek, took account of the foreign news in the areas of economic, social and agrarian science. This journal was specalised in the education of smallholders and reported on economic and political news from abroad. By examining the way Köztelek reflected on American life, one can establish that the Agrarian authors focused on three topics, including the American economy (agriculture, trade and transport), the way of life of farmers, and political tensions. Köztelek did not mention the Populist movement, the agrarian democratic movement in the USA, but it criticised the McKinley government which came to power in 1896.

Keywords: agrarian conservative, agriculture, democracy, farmer, Hungary, Köztelek, populism, press, United States

Kondorosy, Csenge – Endrődy, Orsolya – Simonovits, Borbála – Borsfay, Krisztina – Veszelszki, Ágnes:

Vaccine-narratives

In our social media analysis, we investigate the changes in the quantity and temporal variation of the usage of words related to coronavirus vaccines during the ten months following the release of the vaccines (1 January–1 November 2021), using the artificial intelligence-based social listening software SentiOne. We investigate the mentions of words associated with anti-vaccine, vaccine-neutral and pro-vaccine groups in the broader context of online discourse on vaccine types, and by thematic groups (narratives), using quantitative tools. The general trend in the mentions of vaccine types reveals an intense online discourse (high mentions) for five months after the release of vaccines, which decreases sharply from June onwards. Similar dynamics can be observed in the use of language by vaccine-neutral groups. We outline some possible explanations for this, yet further qualitative research is needed to investigate the reasons in more detail.

Keywords: anti-vaccine, community language use, COVID19, SeniOne, social media analysis, vaccination

Sztáray Kézdy, Éva – Kovácsné Hegedűs, Dóra:

Examining the changing father image in the light of Instagram posts

As a result of the transformation of fatherhood in recent decades, besides the traditional, primarily breadwinning, protective father model, a modern father role has emerged, according to which the father is increasingly involved in the lives of his children. To date, social media are saturating more and more areas of life, and the mediatisation of parenthood and of fatherhood is on the rise. The presentation of fatherhood and the discussion of new trends in fatherhood are becoming increasingly popular among social media players and celebrity fathers. The main aim and question of this research is to explore the new father image and father identity in the context of Hungarian fathers’ Instagram posts. The findings of our explorative research, conducted through quantitative and qualitative textual analysis and visual analysis, point to the fact that the fatherly identity represented on Instagram portrays the image of the modern, actively caring father emotionally involved in his children’s lives. The focus on Instagram posts is mainly on the positive, idyllic, side of fatherhood, with the more difficult moments of parenthood not being portrayed.

Keywords: father’s involvement, Instagram, mediatisation, modern fatherhood, social media, text analysis