Mondd kire figyelsz, megmondom mit gondolsz!
Tell me who you’re listening to and I’ll tell you what you’re thinking!

Political information and opinion formation in an age of multi-channel communication

Summary/Abstract: The article summarises the main findings of research on the political communication enviroment of voters in Hungary. We investigate the interrelationship between news consumption, political opinion and party preferences amongst Facebook users. The results suggest that in Hungarysignificant numbers of people live in one-sided informational communities, both in terms of information sources and political opinions. These citizens prefer consuming partisan news media and talking about politics only with like-minded people, which correlates with their interpretations of political issues. However, not all social strata live in such a bubble. Contrary to expectations, the majority of Facebook users gain political information from politically divergent sources and do not avoid contradictory viewpoints. Moreover, even in the era of the internet and social media, television remains the most important news source for many people. The findings are discussed in light of selective exposure, echo chambers and literature on political polarization.

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