Publications

(After clicking on the titles, you’ll find a brief blog summary of each study’s content)

Paulke, H., Kruschinski, S., Bene, M., Haßler, J., Jackson, D., Lilleker, D., Magin, M. & Russmann, U. (2026). Does Negativity Pay Off? The Impact of Political Party Attributes on the Use and Performance of Negative Campaigning in Digital Political Advertising. Social Science Computer Review, Online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393261469406

Papp Zsófia (2026). Inclusive representation and perceived democratic performance under democratic backsliding. Evidence from a full-factorial experiment in Hungary. Democratization, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2026.2697780

Bene Márton & Burai Krisztina (2026). A Perfect Match? The Populism- Social Media Nexus. In. Axel Bruns, Gunn Enli, Anders Olof Larsson, Jessica Yarin Robinson, Tanja Bosch, and Kateryna Kasianenko (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics, Routledge. (pp. 22-41)

Fenoll, Vicente, Bene Márton & Gonçalves, Isabella (2026). Who Wins the Engagement Race? Examining Normalisation and Equalisation Theories Across 12 Ibero- American Countries. In. Axel Bruns, Gunn Enli, Anders Olof Larsson, Jessica Yarin Robinson, Tanja Bosch, and Kateryna Kasianenko (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics, Routledge. (pp. 536-558)

Anders Olof Larsson, Laura Alonso- Muñoz, Márton Bene, Shelley Boulianne, Vicente Fenoll, Jörg Haßler, Darren Lilleker, Sara Machado, Alena Pospíšil Macková, Percy Peña- Vicuña, and Adriana Rodríguez-Sánchez (2026). Populism Across Two Continents: Assessing the Use of Populist Communication Styles on Facebook Across Ten Countries. In. Axel Bruns, Gunn Enli, Anders Olof Larsson, Jessica Yarin Robinson, Tanja Bosch, and Kateryna Kasianenko (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics, Routledge. (pp. 348-366)

Bene, Márton, & Patkós, Veronika (2026). A ’Safe Space’ for Disagreement? : An Experiment on the Effect of Social Media Cross-Cutting Exposure on Internal Political Efficacy. Central European Journal of Communication, 18(3(41), 307–328. https://journals.ptks.pl/cejc/article/view/673

Magin, M., Russmann, U., Vulcano, R., von Nostitz, F., Wurst, A., Gattermann, K., Alonso-Muñoz, L., Balaban, D. C., Baranowski, P., Burai, K., Cachia, J., Deželan, T., Garaj, M., Hermans, B., Kallinikos, K., Kannasto, E., Kruschinski, S., Lappas, G., Machado, S., Macková, A. P., Segesten, A. D., Skulte, I., Vučković, M., & Wall, M. (2026). Faces of Europe: Structural Drivers of Visual Personalization in Political Parties’ Facebook Campaigns. Media and Communication, 14, Article 11739. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.11739

Burai, K., Bagi, V., & Juhász, V. (2026). A magyar politikai vezetők 2024-es európai parlamenti Facebook-kampányának összehasonlító elemzése. Médiakutató, 2026(1), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.55395/MK.2026.1.6

Péter Ádám Újvári (2026). „Hazaárulók, tolvajok, szívtelenek”: Morális keretezés a magyar politikai kommunikációban [“Traitors, thieves, heartless”: Moral framing in Hungarian political communication]. Politikatudományi Szemle , 35(1), 33-58.

Bagi, V. (2026). The peculiar four: A comparative analysis of illiberal communication strategies on social media and their influence on user engagement in the Visegrád countries.

Burai, K., & Baranowski, P. (2026). European or national? Issue strategies in the 2024 EP campaign in the V4. In P. Baranowski, M. Bene, A. P. Macková, & M. Garaj (Eds.), The peculiar four and Europe: Political communication in social media in the Visegrad countries before the 2024 European Parliament elections. Harrassowitz Verlag.

Paweł Baranowski, Márton Bene, Macková Alena Pospíšil & Michal Garaj (eds.) (2026): The Peculiar Four and Europe. Political Communication in Social Media in the Visegrad Countries before the 2024 European Parliament Elections, Harrassowitz Verlag

Bene Márton – Merkovity Nobert (2026). A digitalis kampányok története Magyarországon (1996-2024). [The history of digital campaigns in Hungary (1996-2024), Médiakutató, 2026 tavasz, 55-67.

Burai, K., Bagi, V., & Juhász, V. (2026). Disruption and continuity: A comparative analysis of Hungarian political leaders’ EP 2024 campaigns on Facebook. In P. Baranowski, M. Bene, A. Pospíšil Macková, & M. Garaj (Eds.), The Peculiar Four and Europe: Political Communication in Social Media in the Visegrad Countries before the 2024 European Parliament Elections. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Paweł Baranowski – Márton Bene (2026). Political Communication in the V4: contexts, challenges and research traditions. In. Paweł Baranowski, Márton Bene, Macková Alena Pospíšil & Michal Garaj (eds.) (2026): The Peculiar Four and Europe. Political Communication in Social Media in the Visegrad Countries before the 2024 European Parliament Elections, 1-12, Harrassowitz Verlag

Márton Bene & Gábor Dobos (2025). Networked Locality: Social Media and Local Politics in Hungary. Palgrave Macmillan (287 p)

Alena Pospíšil Macková, Lucie Čejková, Martina Novotná, Krisztina Burai, Paweł Baranowski, Michal Garaj (2025). When Populism Targets Europe: Anti-EU Rhetoric and User Engagement in the Visegrád Countries. Media and Communication, 13. 

Jörg Haßler , Melanie Magin , Uta Russmann , Anna‐Katharina Wurst, Delia Cristina Balaban , Paweł Baranowski, Jakob Linaa Jensen, Simon Kruschinski, Georgios Lappas, Sara Machado, Martina Novotná, Silvia Marcos‐García , Ioannis Petridis, Anda Rožukalne, Annamária Sebestyén, and Felix‐Christopher von Nostitz (2025). Weaponizing Wedge Issues: Strategies of Populism and Illiberalism in European Election Campaigning on Facebook. Media and Communication.Volume 13

Sebestyén, A. (2025). Political Socialization Scenarios Leading to Party Membership in an Autocratizing Democracy: Insights From an Interview-Based Study. Political Studies, Online first.

Bene, M., & Juhász, V. (2025). The Long-Range Character Assassination Machine: The Role of Megafon’s Astroturf Influencers in the 2022 Pro-Government Campaign in Hungary. American Behavioral Scientist, Online first.

Bene, M. (2025). Will Popular Involvement Lead Us ‘Out of the Ashes’? The Viralization of Political Communication and its Normative Implications. In: Coleman, S., Esser, F., Firmstone, J., Parry, K., Paterson, C. (eds) Public Communication in Freefall. Revisiting the Work of Jay Blumler, 133-166, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Bene, M., & Farkas, X. (2025). Go negative to be on the safe side! A 10-country investigation of the link between journalists’ negative framing and political actors’ strategic communication. Journalism, online first.

Bodo, B., Bene, M., & Boda, Z. (2025). False sense of security and a flurry of misplaced trust: the construction of trust in and by Facebook. Information, Communication & Society, 1-20.

Juhász, V. (2025): Influenszer politikusok és politikai influenszerek. A Megafon negatív kampányának argumentatív vizsgálata a közösségi médiában. Politikatudományi Szemle, 34(1), 7-30.

Goyanes, M. & Bene, M. (2024) News Surveillance and Democracy: The Effect of News Negativity and Political Trust on Intentional News Avoidance, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 36(4), XX