Média és politika (Media and politics)

This book is an updated collection of formerly published media policy papers discussing the institutional setting of the media in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the changing political, technological, and societal context of media policy

Audience Resistance: reasons to Relax Content Regulation

The content of commercial television is strictly regulated in the belief that the media do have a significant impact upon public behaviour and attitudes. This paper argues that recent research in reception studies and in particular evidence of audience resistance question the legitimacy of restrictive content regulation, and calls for a more liberal policy approach to broadcasting regulation

Egy botrány, két reakció (One scandal, two reactions)

A comparative analysis of the British and Hungarian MPs' expenses scandals, framed in terms of the 'media scandal' theory. Élet és Irodalom (a Hungarian political and cultural weekly

The Hungarian Journalism Education Landscape

The paper offers and overview of jouornalism education in Hungary with a focus on the discrepancies between the curriculum and the needs of the media industry

Self-censorship narrated: Journalism in Central and Eastern Europe

Bringing together empirical studies of former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, this Special Issue explores the relationship between censorship and self-censorship. All the cases under consideration share a history of state-led censorship. Importantly, however, the authors argue that journalism in the former Eastern bloc has developed features similar to those observed in many countries which have never experienced state socialism. This introduction presents the theoretical framework and the historical backgound that provide the backdrop for this Special Issue’s contributions, all of which take a journalist-focused angle.European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement n° 683033)

Digital activism and Hungarian media reform: The case of Milla

This article examines the rise of the Internet-based opposition group, One Million for the Freedom of the Press in Hungary (or Milla for short), and considers its impact as a form of digital activism in Hungarian political culture. Milla was founded in December 2010 as a Facebook group in response to the newly elected Fidesz government and its fundamental revision of the Hungarian constitution and, in particular, its media laws. Milla is a civil society group, based in Budapest, who saw the Fidesz government as a threat to the democratic freedoms set out in the post-communist settlement in Hungary. It emerged at a time when the mainstream Hungarian opposition parties were in disarray, and it took on the role of challenging the legitimacy of Fidesz actions. Milla is an important example of the idea of digital activism and virtual solidarity, and its experiences serve to illustrate many of the strengths and weaknesses of these notions. The article sets out the ways in which Milla has sought to generate support for itself and opposition to the government, how it has organized its activities and ultimately the specific problems that it faces in Hungarian civil society