Between neutrality and engagement: Political journalism in Hungary
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19195/1899-5101.10.1(18).4Keywords:
audience needs, media systems, objectivity, professionalization, journalismAbstract
After the political transformation, Hungarian journalism organizations and media policy makers attempted to introduce the standards and practices of neutrality-seeking journalism, yet most news outlets continued to offer engaged accounts of political events and issues. Why was the professionalization of journalism interrupted? This paper attempts to answer this question by offering an overview of the comparative media systems literature in search of the factors shaping journalism practices and by placing Hungary on the map of media systems. Then it suggests that different audience needs may be an additional factor explaining the dominance of different journalism practices in different media systems, with the public in transition societies seeking confirmation rather than information when using the media.
References
Bajomi-Lázár, P., Sükösd, M. (2008). Media policies and media politics in East Central Europe: Issues and trends 1989–2008. In: Alonso, I.F., Moragas, M. de (eds.). Communications and Cultural Policies in Europe. Barcelona: Government of Catalonia, pp. 249–269.
Balčytienė, A. (2012). Culture as a guide in theoretical explorations of Baltic media. In: Hallin, D.C., Mancini, P. (eds.). Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 51–71.
Balčytienė, A., Lauk, E., Głowacki, M. (2014). Roller coasters of social change, democracy and jour-nalism in Central and Eastern Europe. In: Głowacki, M., Lauk, E., Balčytienė, A. (eds.). Journal-ism that Matters. Views from Central and Eastern Europe. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Pub-lishing, pp. 9–19.
Bayer, J. (2005). Globalizáció, média, politika. A politikai kommunikáció változó kontextusa a globalizáció korában [Globalization, media, politics. Changing contexts of political communi-cation in the age of globalization]. In: Bayer, J., Bajomi-Lázár, P. (eds.). Globalizáció, média, politika. Budapest: MTA Politikai Tudományok Intézete, pp. 9–47.
Bayer, J. (ed.) (2010). A közszolgálati média és az európai versenyjog. Közszolgálatiság a változó világ-ban [Public Service Media and European Competition Law. Public Service in a Changing World]. Budapest: L’Harmattan Kiadó.
Carey, J.W. (1989/1992). Communication as Culture: Essays on Modernity and Society. New York and London: Routledge.
Chalaby, J.K. (1996). Journalism as an Anglo-American invention. A comparison of the development of French and Anglo-American journalism, 1830–1920s. European Journal of Communication, 11 (3), pp. 303–326.
Dobek-Ostrowska, B. (2012). Italianization (or Mediterraneanization) of the Polish media system? Reality and perspective. In: Hallin, D.C., Mancini, P. (eds.). Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 26–50.
Enyedi, Zs., Bértoa, F.C. (2010). Pártverseny-mintázatok és blokkpolitika Kelet-Közép-Európában [Patterns of party competition and block politics in East Central Europe]. Politikatudományi Szemle, 19 (1), pp. 7–30.
Gajdics, O. (2016). Nem irigylem a média munkatársait. Az lenne hamis, ha függetlennek hazudnám magam [I do not envy media professionals. It would be fake to say I am independent]. Médiapiac. Retrieved April 4, 2016 from https://www.mediapiac.com/mediapiac/Gajdics-Otto-Nem-iri-gylem-a-media-munkatarsait/112525/.
Hallin, D.C., Mancini, P. (2004). Comparing Media Systems. Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hallin, D.C., Mancini, P. (eds.) (2012). Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World. Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hallin, D.C., Mancini, P. (2013). ‘Comparing media systems’ between Eastern and Western Europe. In: Gross, P., Jakubowicz, K. (eds.). Media Transformations in the Post- Communist World. East-ern Europe’s Tortured Path to Change. Lanham: Lexington Books, pp. 15–32.
Høyer, S. (1998). Media on the eve of the third millenium. Comparing revolutions in communica-tion. In: Zassoursky, Y.N., Vartanova, E. (eds.). Changing Media and Communications. Moscow: Faculty of Journalism & Publisher ICAR, pp. 46–70.
Høyer, S., Lauk, E. (1995). A hivatásos újságírás és a civil társadalom. Történeti áttekintés [Profes-sional journalism and civil society. A historical overview]. Jel-Kép, 1, pp. 73–89.
Humphreys, P.J. (1996). Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.
Jakubowicz, K. (2008). Finding the right place on the map: Prospects for public service broadcasting in post-Communist countries. In: Jakubowicz, K., Sükösd, M. (eds.). Finding the Right Place on the Map. Central and Eastern European Media Change in a Global Perspective. Bristol, UK and Chicago, US: Intellect Books, pp. 101–124.
Jakubowicz, K., Sükösd, M. (2008). Twelve concepts regarding media system evolution and democ-ratization in post-Communist countries. In: Jakubowicz, K., Sükösd, M. (eds.). Finding the Right Place on the Map. Central and Eastern European Media in a Global Perspective. Bristol, UK and Chicago, US: Intellect Books, pp. 9–40.
Lampé, Á. (2016). Email communication to the author, 12 February 2016.
Lansner, Th.R. (ed.) (2013). Capturing Them Softly. Soft Censorship and State Capture in Hungarian Media. Retrieved May 23, 2016 from http://mertek.eu/sites/default/fi les/reports/soft_censor-ship_angol.pdf.
Lauk, E. (2008). How will it all unfold? Media systems and journalism cultures in post-Communist countries. In: Jakubowicz, K., Sükösd, M. (eds.). Finding the Right Place on the Map. Central and Eastern European Media in a Global Perspective. Bristol, UK and Chicago, US: Intellect Books, pp. 193–212.
Lauk, E. (2009). Reflection on changing patterns of journalism in the new EU countries. Journalism Studies, 10 (1), pp. 69–84.
Lázár, G. (1992). Sajtó és hatalom [Press and power]. Népszabadság, május 28.
Mancini, P. (2015). The news media between volatility and hybridization. In: Zielonka, J. (ed.). Media and Politics in New Democracies. Europe in a Comparative Perspective. Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press, pp. 25–37.
MDCEE (2010–2012). Media and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe country reports. Re-trieved October 17, 2015 from http://mde.politics.ox.ac.uk/index.php/country-reports.
Milewski, N., Barczyszyn, P., Lauk, E. (2014). Three countries, one profession: The journalism cul-tures in Poland, Romania and Moldova. In: Głowacki, M., Lauk, E., Balčytienė, A. (eds.). Jour-nalism that Matters. Views from Central and Eastern Europe. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp. 97–114.
Örnebring, H. (2012). Clientelism, elites, and the media in Central and Eastern Europe. The Inter-national Journal of Press/Politics, 17 (4), pp. 497–515.
Pereira, J.S. (2015). Variety of media systems in third-wave democracies. In: Zielonka, J. (ed.). Media and Politics in New Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 231–247.
Preuško, Z., Vozab, D., Čuvalo, A. (2013). Audiences as a source of agency in media systems: Post-socialist Europe in comparative perspective. Mediální Studija/Media Studies, 2, pp. 137–154.
Rantanen, T. (2013). A critique of the systems approaches in comparative media research: A Central and Eastern European Perspective. Global Media and Communication, 9 (3), pp. 257–277.
Seymour-Ure, C. (1974). The Political Impact of Mass Media. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Siebert, F.S., Peterson, T., Schramm, W. (1956/1963). Four Theories of the Press. Urbana and Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Sipos, B. (2010). Média és demokrácia Magyarországon [Media and Democracy in Hungary]. Buda-pest: Napvilág Kiadó.
Sipos, B. (2013). Bias, partisanship, journalistic norms and ethical problems in the contemporary Hungarian political media. Central European Journal of Communication, 6 (1), pp. 89–104. Školkay, A. (2001). Journalism in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In: Bajomi-Lázár, P., Hegedűs, I. (eds.). Media and Politics. Budapest: New Mandate Publishing House, pp. 111–133.
Splichal, S. (1994). Media beyond Socialism: Theory and Practice in East-Central Europe. Boulder, Colorado: Westview.
Štětka, V. (2012). From multinationals to business tycoons: Media ownership and journalistic au-tonomy in Central and Eastern Europe. International Journal of Press/Politics, 17 (4), pp. 433– 456.
Sükösd, M. (2014). ‘East’ of ‘West’ — media in Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia and China: Multiple post-Communisms and shifting geopolitical realities. In: Głowacki, M., Lauk, E., Balčytienė, A. (eds.). Journalism that Matters. Views from Central and Eastern Europe. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Publishing, pp. 21–33.
Szabó, I. (1988). Political Socialization in Hungary. The Duality of Institutional and Non-Institutional Processes. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Vajda, É., Kaposi, I. (2001). Etikai dilemmák a magyar újságírásban [Ethical dilemma sin Hungarian journalism]. In: Sükösd, M., Csermely, Á. (eds.). A hír értékei. Etika és professzionalizmus a mai magyar médiában. Budapest: Média Hungária, pp. 29–39.
Wyka, A.W. (2007). Berlusconization of the mass media in East Central Europe. The new danger of Italianization? Kakanien Revisited, 1, pp. 1–5. Retrieved March 9, 2016 from http://www.kakan-ien-revisited.at/beitr/emerg/AWyka1.pdf.
Zöldi, L. (2001). A glokális sajtó. A külföldi tulajdonban lévő helyi újságok Magyarországon [The ‘glocal’ press. Regional newspapers in foreign hands in Hungary]. Médiakutató, Winter, pp. 149– 160.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Polish Communication Association
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
