Keyword – media

Bayer, Judit:

Who Speaks When AI Writes?

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence into the media ecosystem marks a structural transformation of public communication. What began as algorithmic assistance in data-driven reporting—sports, finance, weather—has evolved into systems capable of producing persuasive, human-like text, images and audiovisual content across virtually any domain. This paper situates generative AI (GenAI) within the legal and ethical architecture of journalism, highlighting that the technology destabilises foundational assumptions about authorship, accountability and the nature of expression itself. The paper relies on a graduated model of AI involvement, distinguishing between assistive, transformative and fully generative uses. This spectrum is not merely descriptive but also normative, as legal responsibility and ethical expectations intensify with the degree of machine autonomy. Particularly in fully generative contexts, questions of liability, copyright and editorial accountability become acute. The apparent autonomy of AI, however, remains partly illusory: human input persists at every stage, from training via prompting to editorial oversight. The analysis identifies three interrelated areas of ethical challenge. The first is connected to journalistic ethics and consist of three elements: transparency that aims to preserve trust and accountability both in terms of training data and output disclosure; the journalistic standard of accuracy is systematically challenged by the heightened risk of misinformation, hallucinations and unverifiable sources, raising the duty of verification to a whole new level. The second area of ethical concern is bias and discrimination that persist within and get extrapolated by generative systems, reflecting structural inequalities embedded in training data. Finally, labour implications raise concerns about the displacement of journalists and the erosion of professional autonomy.

Keywords: AI Act, ChatGPT, generative AI, journalism, media

Somlyai, Özge:

The Changing Scope and Role of Alternative Media in Countering Authoritarian Narratives in Turkey

This article examines how fear has been institutionalised in Turkey’s media environment under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) headed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and how alternative news outlets, created and managed by professional journalists and including Bianet, Medyascope, and T24, exhibited resilience in countering the regime’s authoritarian narratives. It also explores AKP’s systematic efforts to transform mainstream media into propaganda tools through legal, economic, and regulatory measures. Relying on semi-structured interviews conducted with journalists from these news outlets, media scholars, and political scientists, it studies the evolving scope of alternative news media in Turkey. While Medyascope and T24 now view themselves as pioneering actors creating and shaping space for ‘new mainstream media,’ Bianet remains an important representative of alternative media in the country. By embracing digital platforms, fostering investigative practices, and amplifying voices unheard or suppressed, these outlets challenge the AKP Government’s fear-driven narratives and create space for democratic dialogue. Thus, this study contributes to broader debates on the role of media and more specifically on the role of professional journalists in sustaining (counter-)public spaces in authoritarian contexts by emphasising the resilience of journalists and the evolving nature of alternative media in Turkey.

Keywords: alternative, journalism, mainstream, media, Turkey

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

Martin, József Péter:

Sliding Hand-in-Hand

The first part of this paper discusses the challenges that researchers face when defining and measuring press freedom and corruption. The second part looks into the interplay of media freedom and corruption in general and in Hungary in particular. While both the slide of media freedom and the institutionalisation of corruption are in line with global trends, the Hungarian case evinces some peculiarities. Unfolding these helps us understand why systemic corruption has not been broken in Hungary despite investigative media covering corruption scandals.

Keywords: corruption, press freedom, media

Szerényi, Szabolcs:

The complex relationship between art and advertising and their inherent research possibilities

This study is to present, to illustrate with examples, and to visually represent the close and complex relationship between art and advertising. It also attempts to organize the most important dimensions of the relationship between art and advertising and to present the main marketing communication goals and effects of using art in advertisements. Finally, it outlines some recommendations for future research.

Keywords: advertising, art, marketing, marketing communication, media, culture

Barki, Bálint:

Media and penal populism

This paper is to explore the role of the media in the rise of penal populism. First, it delineates the concepts of criminal and of penal policies and situates penal populism in this context. Then it addresses the relationship between penal populism and media and outlines the social causes that may contribute to the rise of penal populism. Finally, it offers a description of two early penal populist moves in Hungary, with a focus on the reasons for their introduction and on their media coverage. Penal populism is a form of criminal policy whereby professional considerations are subordinated to political ones aimed at vote maximalisation—but ignoring the potential societal consequences

Keywords: crime representation, media, penal populism, public opinion, vote maximisation

Gayer, Zoltán:

What is a Medium?

This paper argues that the internet is not a medium. Rather, one should consider media the applications and websites the internet is a channel for. It defines a medium as an algorithm-based encoding system linked to a data structure. It also suggests a typology to define all media, old and new.

Keywords: algorithm, internet, Facebook, media, medium, television, TikTok, radio