Cultural Studies paper by Szilágyi-Gál, Mihály
Online Political Radicalism in Hungary
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
The special role of the media in the political developmentof the national-radical scene in Hungary in the last decade is that it does not simply “reflect” an already existing political group but it actually constitutes this group. Similarly to the phenomena of the exchange between classical and online contents as well as elements of style which have created a new media, the self-relying political presence of the online media and its fusion withmainstream politics have created a kind of new politics. This fact doesn't simply result an interaction between mainstream politics and the online media, but also results in the emergence of parallel political realities: the online media on the one hand and the mainstream political system on the other hand. A closer insight may highlight the following aspects of this process: 1. the overall political importance of the media presence of the national-radical scene has proved to be more significant than its direct political representation; 2. moreover its direct political representation is already an outcome of its previous online emergence; 3. this particular political development the national-radical scene has achieved in the online media seems to be more lasting than its success in the mainstream forms of political representation; 4 this newly emerged political scene has proved to be competitive to the mainstream politics itself in its influence upon the overall political development of the country.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Mihály Szilágyi-Gál (Kolozsvár, 1971) is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Art Theory and Media Studies, ELTE Universty of Sciences Budapest. He studied philosophy and political science in Budapest, Debrecen, and Tübingen and received his PhD in philosophy in 2007 from the University of Debrecen. His research interest embraces topics ranging from modern political philosophy to media ethics with special interest to freedom of expression. Besides his professional publications Mihály Szilágyi-Gál has published many articles in the Hungarian press about politics and media.