Analysis of Új Ember

by Horváth Gyula

This analysis will be concerned with the newspaper Új Ember, a weekly catholic magazine. I frequently encounter it at the entrance of the church, on a table dedicated to newspapers and postcards, where it can be bought for 195 HUF. One can also subscribe to it, and get the paper and a detailed television programme, for 15,400 HUF for a year, 7,800 HUF for half a year, and 3,900 HUF for quarter of a year. Its founder is not known to me, but from what I gathered, it was founded by the Catholic Church, its first issue being published on August 9th, 1945. It was banned for half a year after the suppression of the 1956 Revolution. It is distributed to about 6,000 temples and 3,000 vicarages. It and its television programme, Mértékadó, are the only printed, weekly Catholic newspapers in Hungary.

The title of this newspaper is an obvious allusion to The Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, 4.24, “öltsétek magatokra az új embert, aki az Isten szerint igazságosságban és az igazság szentségében alkotott teremtmény.” Or in English, “And that ye put on the new man, which after god is created in righteousness and true holiness” (King James Bible). It is an appropriate title for a Catholic newspaper, and implies that one will get closer to God and be a better catholic if they read it.

The front page is moderately colourful. Around three fifths of it is taken up by coloured pictures, with the picture of the lead story, distinguished by the yellow colour of its title, taking up the top half of the page. It shows the topic of the article, the symbols of the World Youth Day (WYD); the WYD Cross, also called the Jubilee or Pilgrim Cross, and the WYD Icon, an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which were gifted to the youth of the world by Pope John Paul II. Both symbols came to Budapest that week, and were brought to the Országúti Templom, where the picture was taken during the mass celebrating the fact. The bottom half has two more articles, each with an image, one short and another which is continued on page 4. To the side is a yellow box which lists three more articles, all of which talk about Catholics who made some kind of sacrifice; one about a martyr, one about the Catholics who helped rescue Jews during the holocaust, and one about a Pakistani woman who is facing possible execution (her case for being a Catholic before the high court). The masthead of the paper looks like it has been written with a brush, and the subtitle says, “Magyarország katolikus hetilapja” (Hungary's Catholic weekly), but no other indication is given on what the newspaper's topic is.

The paper has 16 pages, including front and back page, which are also used for articles. The language of the articles is relatively formal, as it has some Catholic terms, like encyclical, and absolutely no slang unless they quote someone who uses it. The reader is never addressed directly, though there are instances where the writer writes in the plural, giving one a feeling of belonging and strengthening the feeling that the entire Catholic community is of that opinion. The overall tone is factual with a flavour of common opinion.

Advertisements are not really prominent in the paper, except the last two to three pages. About three and a quarter pages out of the 16 is advertisement, mostly concerning Catholicism in some way, for example Catholic radio channels or Catholic books, except for one Béres Csepp advertisement and one advertisement about a digital newsstand.

All in all, given the information above, it can be safely deduced that the target audience is middle-aged Catholics with at least a high-school education, and is trying to strengthen their faith and give them role models to look up to and follow, as well as familiarising them with the various aspects of faith and the history of the different Catholic organisations.