Talk by Vali Tóth, One click away from the truth?
London-based Hungarian freelance journalist Vali Tóth gave an excellent talk last year concerning contemporary journalism in Hungary and the impact of political transformation and the internet on news media.
Vali contextualised technological and political changes of the past decades, from the late 1970s when there were no direct phone calls between Szeged and Pécs, to the present day, where online news content is generated to attract the highest number of clicks from online visitors.
The Hungarian media landscape was transformed from a patrician Party-dominated system to a multi-party democracy in which influence over the media remained a political priority, and free market pressures discouraged investigative journalism in favour of plagiarism and superficial coverage of economic questions.
We discussed Hungarian media and journalism in a broader post-Communist context, and a few examples Vali provided of changing forms, content, language and presentation.