Keyword – attention-building

Stumpf, Péter Bence – Szekeres, Tamás – Merkovity, Norbert:

Migrants during break time

The research presented in this paper examines the one-minute long news bulletins aired during the half-time breaks of the FIFA World Cup in 2018. The findings indicate that these news bulletins acted as a vehicle for the narratives of the government and were used to maximise the attention focused on the migration wave. The analysed cases show that reporting could serve political purposes both in terms of length and story selection. Although immigration was a prominent topic during the studied periods, it received even more airtime during the World Cup. It is beyond the reach of this study to analyse the effects of reporting on public opinion. However, the success of the Fidesz/KDNP party alliance in the 2018 legislative elections and the 2019 European elections suggests that this method of communication had been quite efficient, and the one-minute news blocks had served attention building purposes.

Keywords: attention-based politics, attention-building, FIFA World Cup, framing, immigration, migration, public service television, news programs, one-minute newscast, political communication