Éva Bognár Interviewed About Reuters Digital News Report on Media1 Radio Program
The COVID-19 pandemic increased trust in media worldwide but not so much in Hungary, CMDS Senior Program Officer and Researcher Éva Bognár said in an interview on radio program Media 1 on Spirit FM, discussing the Reuters Digital News Report 2021.
In the wide-ranging interview, Bognár said that in addition to an increase in trust, the DNR showed people had returned to traditional news sources. In Hungary, however, both trends are much weaker.
Hungarian society is highly divided. Both sides have their own list of “reliable media outlets,” and these lists do not overlap. The only news source somewhat trusted by both sides is television channel RTL-Klub. In the pandemic, it would be particularly important to have a widely accepted, unbiased news source, which is the public service media in other countries. In Hungary, the public service media do not fulfil this role, Bognár said.
Bognár also discussed the case of Index.hu and Telex.hu, which she saw as one of the most important events in the Hungarian media scene in 2020. In the DNR, 54% of respondents said they trusted Telex.hu, which is very good for a new media outlet. Meanwhile, Index.hu’s reach remained high, but their trust score dropped 7%. In Bognár’s view, it would be interesting to research the impact of changes of ownership in people’s perception of news outlets.
Bognár further talked about potential problems with consuming news on social media, the difference between reach and reliability, the increase in Hungary of people who pay for news, young people’s news consumption, the requirement of objectivity for news sources, the impact of one’s political values on news perception, misinformation, and many other issues. Regarding “fake news,” in Hungary and worldwide, respondents expressed most concern about politicians spreading misinformation. Interestingly, the proportion of people worried about politicians in this regard was 29% worldwide, and much higher, 41% in Hungary.