The DIACOMET international research group organized a total of 87 focus group discussions in eight countries – Austria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Slovenia – with more than 500 participants to learn about their views on ethical issues in public communication and the media environment in their countries. The country reports summarizing the results of the empirical research are available here.

The research method, which sought to understand the voices of „non-institutional media actors” was developed by research groups working in a close collaboration with the University of Tampere. The common framework of the study was the concept of the attention economy, based on the researchers’ assumption that gaining and utilizing attention has become a key element of public communication, which also determines the dynamics of information dissemination and participation in communication in the digital space. Accordingly, this work package focused on social actors with varying degrees of attention capital.

In 2024, the Hungarian team of the project organized ten focus group discussions in Budapest, attended by approximately 60 journalists, colleagues of civil society organizations, communication and PR professionals, teachers, students, and interested citizens. The aim of the discussions was to explore how participants view today’s Hungarian media environment and public communication practices, and how they interpret the concept of ethical communication.

The Hungarian country report was written by Eszter Hadnagy, with contributions from István Hegedűs and Erik Uszkiewicz. We would like to thank Csenge Schönviszky for her assistance in organizing the focus groups.