European debate on the Hungarian media regulation: a communicative experience of European Integration

Since the Hungarian government led by PM Viktor Orbán took office, Parliament has passed a series of new laws (in August, November and December 2010) which has reshaped the media legislative framework and regulation. The new measures (which came into force on the 1st of January 2011) provoked very harsh European criticisms from EU institutions, European politicians, international bodies and press. The paper assesses the debate on the Hungarian media regulation as a national experience of European integration, since it was the first time ever in the history of the Hungarian EU membership that the Hungarian government had to face such harsh and heated political criticisms from EU representatives (even the Haider-case of 2000 was mentioned to put the issue into a comparative political context). This case also offers a promising perspective what role communication might play in the European integration and how EU and the integration process are framed by the actors who participated in the European debate on the Hungarian media regulation. The aim of the study is to observe how the communications around the Hungarian media regulation flowed at EU level (RQ). I am particularly interested in identifying the fora and the participants of the debate (RQa, RQb, RQc). The ambition of the paper is also to explore the nature of the main discursive directions of the debates (RQd). As the theoretical background, the compound of the ‘Framing Europe’ approach (Diez Medrano 2003; de Vreese 2003) and Erik O. Eriksen’s model of the European public spheres is applied (2005). The method of the research is the follow-up analysis bolstered by frame analysis which provides an analytical tool for recording the characters of the communication activities of the Hungarian government (1), the Hungarian oppositional parties (2), Groups of the European Parliament (3), the European Commission (4), sample of Hungarian and foreign mass media (including quality press, tabloids, online journals and EU blogs) (5) and civil societies (6) and their issue interpretations. All substantive items of communication were downloaded from the communicators’ website and coded as it had been previously set in the codebook of the research. Finally, the paper wishes to contribute to the dispute of the workshop about the possible ways in conceptualizing the relationship between communication (framing) as experience of integration and attitudes towards the EU as making a cautious attempt to evaluate the validity of the surveys which were conducted to audit the debate’s effect on public opinion in Hungary. References: Eriksen, E.O. (2005). An Emerging European Public Sphere. European Journal of Social Theory. 8, pp. 341-363. Diez Medrano, J. (2003). Framing Europe: Attitudes to European Integration in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Princeton, Princeton University Press. de Vreese, C. H. (2003). Framing Europe. Television news and European integration. Het Spinhuis.