How Movements Are Mediated

The Case of the Hungarian Student Network in 2012–2013

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Bálint Takács University of Pécs blintov@gmail.com

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Sára Bigazzi University of Pécs bigazzisara@hotmail.com

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Ferenc Arató University of Pécs koopcsop@gmail.com

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Sára Serdült University of Pécs sersaca@gmail.com

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Abstract

This article examines media representations of statements made by the 2012 student movement in Hungary. We analyzed a total of 138 articles from two main Hungarian online journals. We found that both outlets focused strictly on the movement’s specific claims about educational policy but neglected to report on the broader political-ideological claims that it made. The emphasized claims reflected the specific political agenda of each outlet, with both newspapers also framing events according to the outlook of Hungary’s dominant political establishment (Fidesz).We then traced the dialogue between the Hungarian government and the student movement over time. We found that the movement was the much more active partner in this dialogue. We coded the co-occurrences of psycholinguistic markers, testing perspectivetaking as a requirement for dialogue. The results indicated that the dialogue was a pretense of negotiation from the government and ended with insignificant adjustments to its original plans.

Contributor Notes

Bálint Takács is currently working on his PhD dissertation, which explores the narrative aspects of engagement with political ideologies and their effect on participation in collective action and identity. Lately, he has worked as an assistant researcher on the project “The Effect of Social Identity on Prejudice and Collective Action” with the other coauthors of this article at the University of Pécs. Email: blintov@gmail.com

Sára Bigazzi is an assistant professor in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at the University of Pécs. Her main research interests are intergroup relations, majority-minority issues, and conflicts and their possible resolutions. She has worked for fifteen years for bottom-up civil organizations and in community development projects, where she tries to implement theoretical concepts and put her research results into practice. Email: bigazzisara@hotmail.com

Ferenc Arató is an assistant professor at the Institute of Education at the University of Pécs. His main field of interest is cooperative learning as a method, theory, and practice inside and outside of classroom contexts. Email: koopcsop@gmail.com

Sára Serdült is an assistant lecturer in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at the University of Pécs. She is currently working on her PhD dissertation about the interdependence of identity and social representations of Roma people in Hungary. Email: sersaca@gmail.com

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The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest

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