Between the state and the platforms: A socio-technical analysis of changing practices in Hungarian digital journalism

In recent years, the field of digital journalism in Hungary has undergone a profound transformation. One of the driving forces behind this change is the global platformisation of journalism, which has had far-reaching effects on journalism’s business and practices. Another, local factor is the government’s increasing intervention in the media industry and journalism. Using Telex.hu, one of Hungary’s most read independent online news sites as a case study, this paper maps the socio-technical web of affordances and dependencies that digital journalistic content production and distribution must navigate under these circumstances. The paper concludes that the government’s economic interventions weaken the financial relationship between journalism and advertisers, while platforms’ dominance over distribution channels weakens the direct relationship between journalism and audiences. The interplay of media and platform captures form a hybrid ecosystem of control in which content functions as the operational intersection point of political-economic and technological power.