Keyword – external shock

Farkas, Xénia – Burai, Krisztina – Bene, Márton:

Riding the waves

Issue strategies under the impact of an external shock during a campaign

Médiakutató, 2024. nyár, XXV. évf., 2. sz.

How are the issue strategies of political leaders influenced by an external shock that changes the public agenda of the election campaign? The 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election campaign provides a unique opportunity for this question to be investigated, as Russia attacked Ukraine only six weeks before Election Day. This study is to examine whether the campaign's issue strategies have changed under the impact of this shocking event and, if so, what the main directions of the changes are. Hungarian party leaders’ Facebook posts issued during the campaign were submitted to manual content analysis covering the period both before and after the outbreak of the war. The findings suggest that while the war, the economy and foreign policy play a greater role in the communication of most political actors after February 24, there are remarkable differences between political actors.