Keyword – populism

Szöllőskei, Levente:

Race-Based Populism in Donald Trump’s Online Political Discourse

It is impossible to effectively interpret the political world of our time without meticulously analysing the communication strategies of political leaders. This paper maps the characteristics of US President Donald Trump’s populist political communication based on an online discourse on a civil movement that took a stand against racial discrimination. The corpus, created between 2017 and 2020 and aimed at undermining the movement, consists of Donald Trump’s Twitter posts submitted to critical discourse analysis. This paper argues that the President used the fundamental tools of populist political communication even in his politically charged Twitter posts, as his aim was to dominate the political agenda and to ignore the unresolved issues of race in the US.

Keywords: discourse analysis, Donald Trump, political communication, populism, twitter

Paár, Ádám:

Two Periods of Populism in the USA

The populist movement, founded in the end of the 19th century in the USA, was a project based on writers. The movement, and the People’s Party (or Populist Party) based on it, promoted many progressive ideas, including progressive taxation, eight-hour workdays, women’s suffrage, and the protection of farmers and industrial workers, based on labour and farmer movement ideas. Politically, however, it was a failure, and the party was dissolved in 1908. Owing to the Great Depression, populism was reborn in the 1930s, and several self-appointed politicians came to voice old Populist slogans and phrases. The most famous of them, Governor of Louisiana Huey P. Long, served as a model for Governor Willie Stark, the protagonist of All the King’s Men, a novel by Robert Penn Warren. This paper presents the US populist movement based on two novels.

Keywords: capitalism, farmer, populism, the United States, utopia

Bódi, Jenő – Polyák, Gábor – Urbán, Ágnes:

The changing concept of fake news in public service news

In Hungary in 2020, after the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, government communication began to accuse critical media of spreading fake news. This typical tool of populist politics has taken on a new colour in Hungary: fake news accusations have also been used against opposition politicians. This analysis looks into content on fake news published over the past decade on Hirado.hu, the news site of the Hungarian public service media. It does not study fake news items that may be published there, but looks into what the concept 26 Bódi Jenő–Polyák Gábor–Urbán Ágnes means in the public discourse on the basis of the articles on Hirado.hu, and how the meaning of the term has evolved over time; for example, whether populist fake news accusations targeting the media and the domestic opposition appeared before 2020.

Keywords: content analysis, fake news, MTVA, news media, populism, public service media

Paár, Ádám:

The Agrarian movement, the journal Köztelek and the USA (1892–1908)

In the late 1800s, when the USA became the leading economic and military power, a new Hungarian political group described as ‘agrarian’ began to look into American life, politics and economics. The Agrarians criticised the Hungarian governments for their exaggerated support granted to the industries and for ignoring the interests of the peasant population. The Agrarians refused to establish a political party of their own, and represented and popularised their values and ideas via their press. Their representative journal, Köztelek, took account of the foreign news in the areas of economic, social and agrarian science. This journal was specalised in the education of smallholders and reported on economic and political news from abroad. By examining the way Köztelek reflected on American life, one can establish that the Agrarian authors focused on three topics, including the American economy (agriculture, trade and transport), the way of life of farmers, and political tensions. Köztelek did not mention the Populist movement, the agrarian democratic movement in the USA, but it criticised the McKinley government which came to power in 1896.

Keywords: agrarian conservative, agriculture, democracy, farmer, Hungary, Köztelek, populism, press, United States

Benedek, István:

The Rise of a Hybrid Media System

This paper studies the rise and functioning of Hungary’s anti-pluralist hybrid media system under the Orbán Regime, placing it in the broader context of the country’s transformation into a populist electoral autocracy (PEA). It analyses how institutional changes and media manipulation strategies such as partisan media regulation, biased state advertising, and third-party campaigns have enabled the government to extend its control over the public discourse. By the late 2010s, the regime had achieved overwhelming media dominance, which fostered self-censorship, anticipatory obedience, media capture, asymmetric parallelism, and the erosion of media independence, all under the guise of formal media freedom. This paper also explores the implications of these developments for media polarisation and autocratic resilience, emphasising how government-controlled discourse and partisan audiences undermine informed decision-making and accountability, thereby securing electoral success and sustaining public support for the regime. Finally, it highlights potential challenges to the system’s resilience in the mid-2020s amid emerging international and domestic pressures, which could significantly impact the future of Hungary’s media landscape.

Keywords: autocratic stabilisation, Hungary, hybridisation, media system, Orbán regime, populism