Hungarian Journalism: On the brink of a social-media revolution

FLOW PR, one of Hungary’s top corporate public-relations firms, Nov. 2 released the first-ever Trendlabor Mediaindex, a comprehensive survey of how Hungarian journalists use social-media channels in their work. The survey, conducted in conjunction with Capital Research in the summer of 2010, found that media professionals are becoming more interested in social media as a professional tool — but are far from exploiting its full potential.

Researchers asked reporters whether they were familiar with social-media sites, how much they use them and how they view the future of social media in their field. The results indicate that Hungarian reporters know a lot about the main networking sites and read blogs, but are often unfamiliar with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and video-, image- and document-sharing sites — even though these features would expedite the exchange of information and simplify their daily routines.
On a positive note, nearly two-thirds of the respondents said they thought journalists should be present on the social-media channels. We therefore expect traditional media outlets in Hungary will adapt to this new style of information-gathering and the broad choice it offers. However, this does not mean quality or ethical standards of reporting will change — the quality of the reporting and content will continue to be marketable.

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