The Parallel Reality of Hungarian Government Media
48 hours, 6 news sites, 1 demonstration
NOTE: If you are not familiar with the demonstrations taking place in April 2017 in Hungary you might want to read these articles: Massive protest in Hungary against bill that could oust Soros university Tens of thousands protest Hungary’s education, NGO policies This project was created to draw attention to the vast differences on how independent and government media reports recent demonstrations in Budapest. On April 12 and 13, 2017 I’ve saved a screenshot in every hour of these Hungarian news sites: Independent: Index (now:Telex) , 444 , hvg , Propaganda: origo, hirado.hu, 888 I’ve highlighted articles about the recent demonstrations, Central European University, George Soros, NGOs and the trial of Marton Gulyas and Gergely Varga. Having not read most of the articles in detail, I have highlighted elements based on their title and lead in 288 screenshots.
A demonstration was taking place on 12th April. This is how the sites looked like between 18:00 and 19:00 The three on the left are independent media and the three on the right are the propaganda sites. There is a clear difference in the amount and placement of articles dealing with the event.
Another version: I’ve used colors to highlight the size and placement of the selected articles.
I’ve only posted the project on facebook but it quickly spread and it was soon present on three major news sites (index, hvg, 24.hu). On 16th April I’ve been contacted by RTL klub TV channel. They were asking for permission to use my work which I’ve granted. By contrast my work was featured without permission, taken out of context to support entirely opposite statements of my original message by TV2 (government biased channel). It’s quite ironic when you highlight a problem and the problem uses your own critique to perpetuate itself.
Another version: I’ve used colors to highlight the size and placement of the selected articles.
