Keyword – Hungary

Zakinszky Toma, Viktória:

“According to press information.”

Migration from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia and the migration crisis got into the focus of media reporting in Central and South-East Europe after the spring of 2015 when the largest wave of migrants arrived into the region, and the topic of migration has remained a major issue in the media all around Europe until to date. It has been more or less intense, politicised, biased, over-simplified or overtly full of disinformation. In most cases, this is explained by pure ignorance, but a deliberate use of lies can also be detected. Sometimes journalists/reporters were unfamiliar with the correct terms and phrases, while sometimes there were no appropriate definitions. Using a comparative method, this paper offers a discourse analysis of Hungarian and Serbian national and regional media. These two countries are both on the ‘West-Balkan route,’ both are transit countries, not destination for migrants. However, they are in different political positions: Hungary being an EU member state, and Serbia wishing to become one. The focus of this research is on the comparative analysis of media discourses between 2016 and 2019 in Hungary and Serbia.

Keywords: asylum seekers, content analysis, crisis, discourse, Hungary, media, migrants, refugees, Serbia, Vojvodina

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

Tófalvy, Tamás:

Where the Social History of Hungarian Digital Media and Theories of Interpretative Media History Meet

„Work in this area is just beginning; we need much more” – wrote Fred Turner (2017) about unearthing local, non-American cultural histories of the internet. Indeed, while the Anglo-Saxon and predominantly American past of digital media is relatively well-documented and researched (see Boczkowski 2004), about digital histories of the peripheral regions – whether in the Global South or in Central and Eastern Europe – little is known and written in the realms of social sciences. This paper attempts to reflect upon one methodological question regarding the possible narratives of the social history of Hungarian content provision: what kind of relationship could be established between research in this particular field and the Anglo-Saxon research tradition of interpretative technology and media history?

Keywords: content provision, cultural technology studies, historical narratives, Hungary, Internet history, media history, social history

Feischmidt, Margit – Zakariás, Ildikó:

Media effects and opinion formation among Hungarian living in Germany and solidarising with refugees

The paper analyses the relationship between transnational solidarity and the public. It seeks to explore the relationships between media consumption, refugee solidarity and the expression of related opinion among people exposed to two different national media spaces and themselves trans-nationally mobile. The effect of both legacy and social media has been examined. Refugee solidarity has been operationalised both as practices (either philanthropic aid or paid work helping refugees in Germany) and as attitudes, taking into consideration opinions regarding refugee supporting practices. Based on a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews conducted among Hungarians living in Germany, it finds that, through its capacities of shaping the public, refugee solidarity has implications beyond immediate helping relations.

Keywords: Germany, Hungary, media and publicity, migration, refugees, solidarity

Benczes, Réka – Szabó, Lilla Petronella – Virág, Ágnes:

It’s showtime: the politics is a show metaphor in the 2022 election campaign of Fidesz

According to the conceptual metaphor theory of the cognitive linguistic enterprise, we often interpret more abstract concepts in terms of more concrete concepts. Politics is such an abstract concept, which appeared via the concept of show in American culture in the second half of the 20th century. The politics is a show metaphor depicts politicians as the characters of a show, while voters appear as the viewers of the show. This metaphorical interpretation does not carry negative judgement. The politics is a show metaphor appeared in the Hungarian political discourse during the 2022 legislative election campaign in a video entitled Gyurcsány Show. The video interprets politics as a failed show; hence, a negative value judgement can be attributed to the advertisement. Our study explores how the metaphor conceptualising politics as a show (which does not necessarily carry a negative meaning in the American context) has been adapted to contemporary Hungarian politics and how it has acquired an evidently negative meaning in the Hungarian context.

Keywords: conceptual blending, conceptual metaphor, Fidesz, Hungary, negative campaign, political discourse

Tófalvy, Tamás:

Online Harassment of Journalists in Hungary

This report, prepared for the International Press Institute (IPI) in 2017, presents the findings of a study focused on mapping, observing and analysing the online harassment of journalists in Hungary. It is aimed at identifying the types of harassment journalists are subject to, and at mapping which journalists are typically harassed, who the harassers are, and how journalists cope with harassment. The report identified eight basic types of harassment present in Hungary, including rhetorical aggression, trolling, bullying, threats, public shaming, violations of personal privacy, cyber attacks and site hacking, and malicious social media activity. It found that the most common types of online harassment were trolling and rhetorical aggression, experienced by Hungarian online journalists on a daily basis on both public and private channels. Based on the analysis of data, this report defines three main challenges for Hungarian online journalism with regard to the ubiquitous nature of online harassment: a soft chilling effect, a ‘desensitisation effect,’ and the significant volume and intensity of harassment targeted at traditionally oppressed social groups, against women in particular.

Keywords: Hungary, IPI report, journalists, online harassment