[Commlist] new book: Understanding online disinformation - Concepts, mechanisms, and policy responses

/*Understanding online disinformation: Concepts, mechanisms, and policy 
responses*/ is published in English online. It is edited byJános Tamás 
Papp of Pázmány Péter Catholic University & Levente Nyakas of Budapest 
Metropolitan University. Published, in July 2026, by theInstitute for 
Media Studies, an independent research institute supporting the work of 
the Media Council and the Hungarian national media regulator, NMHH,the 
volume is an open access book with ISBN 978-615-5302-60-2.


<https://mtmi.hu/files/c9b5ab46-3269-4fc1-9769-a08af65f34d6.pdf 
<https://mtmi.hu/files/c9b5ab46-3269-4fc1-9769-a08af65f34d6.pdf>>

This volume examinesdisinformation and related forms of information 
disorder as phenomena which are simultaneously social, technological, 
and legal, and which therefore require analytical frameworks capable of 
connecting micro-level features of messages to macro-level patterns of 
mobilization, institutional trust, and democratic resilience.


It is in this integrative spirit that the arguments set out examine the 
logic behind production of misleading content, the distribution dynamics 
that render certain narratives disproportionately visible, the audience 
practices through which such content is interpreted and recirculated, 
and the governance instruments that aim to mitigate harm while remaining 
compatible with freedom of expression and with democratic pluralism.


A central challenge addressed throughout is that ‘fake news’ has been 
used, in scholarly and public discourse alike, as a convenient umbrella 
for practices that differ in intention, structure, and effect, including 
deliberate fabrication designed to deceive, strategic propaganda, 
opportunistic clickbait, context-stripping and recombination of 
authentic materials, satire and parody, as well as negligent or careless 
dissemination of inaccuracies that may nevertheless have serious 
consequences. This heterogeneity has direct analytical implications: if 
the object of study is defined too broadly, it risks collapsing distinct 
mechanisms into a single undifferentiated category and thereby obscuring 
causal pathways; if it is defined too narrowly, it risks excluding forms 
of manipulation that are empirically salient and socially harmful, and 
may also misalign with the operational categories employed by 
policymakers, platforms, and civil society actors.


*Table of Contents:*

Introduction.

János Tamás Papp


Mapping the landscape of fake news definitions


János Tamás Papp


Disinformation from a communication and media studies perspective


Mónika Andok


Disinformation and its legal implications related to freedom of 
expression: Four issues for consideration regarding regulation and 
conceptualization


Gergely Ferenc Lendvai


The relevance of psychological operations in social media – Conceptual 
overview Part 1


Péter Bányász


The relevance of psychological operations in social media – Findings 
from empirical research Part 2


Péter Bányász


The European Union’s online disinformation regulation in practice

Levente Nyakas – Péter Nemere


Regulation of online disinformation in the Netherlands


Ronan Ó Fathaigh


Case study: Slovakia


Andrej Školkay


French online disinformation regulation in practice
Péter Nemere


Scaremongering – Criminal law responses to fake news and the problem of 
restrictions on freedom of expression defending public peace in Hungary


Zsuzsanna Monori

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