The Lounge Group’s representative study of both Hungarian and US voting behavior during the US presidential elections brought surprising results. According to the findings on primary news sources, Americans prefer TV while Hungarians prefer online portals.
In examining the two countries, there are distinct differences in news and general media consumption.
Among Hungarians of voting age, media consumption is almost equally distributed between Internet and TV. However, when it comes to news or content related to the public sphere, online forums lead in Hungary: 41% of politically active participants indicated the internet as their primary platform. Meanwhile, nearly 60% of US participants indicated TV as their main source. This is not too surprising considering the enormous interest surrounding the televised presidential debates. For instance, 73 million viewers tuned into the first debate; on the night of the elections, 71 million American viewers followed the live results in front of their TVs. During prime time, Fox News alone was watched by 13.7 million—leaving behind even CNN and MSNBC.
When looking more closely at various age groups, there are significant disparities in platform preferences for news consumption.
Hungarian youths—specifically between the ages of 18 and 34—have very clearly taken to Facebook and primarily prefer this platform for news. Online portals come in second, then TV. Yet among the 35-49 age group, Facebook usage for this purpose considerably drops to almost the same rate as radio. In America, 18-34-year-olds make up the largest ratio of readers on Facebook, however it’s not first place for them; TV is also the primary source for this youngest generation of American voters.
“As with everything, globalization is noticeable in media consumption trends. On political and social issues however, there still remains completely different habits of consumption. Internet and TV media consumption in Hungary has for years been expanding side-by-side. Today, we can refer to general screen time in Hungary too, given that we watch TV on our phones and go online on the TV. But this trend is not just relevant here—the prevalence of multiscreen media consumption is growing worldwide; in other words, TV and internet are getting closer in time and space” said Krisztina Hidvégi, Media Director of the Lounge Group. She went on: “Rather, the question is not whether we consume other media or whether media consumption is globalizing, but instead, if our tools and media preferences are the same for political and public content?”