War, parliamentary elections, the unexpected death of Krisztián Berki, or the death of Christiano Ronaldo’s newborn son. These are just some of the topics that most Hungarian people clicked on the Internet in 2022. The National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) prepared a kind of accounting of the use of online media last year. It strove to provide as detailed data as possible about the content of news published in the Internet world and the habits of users.
In 2022, on an average day, 4.2 million domestic users were online, who opened 84 million pages from Hungarian online media on a daily basis. A person looked for about twenty news, blog posts, weather reports, schedule information, or just entertainment content within 24 hours. Last year, the number of page downloads exceeded 27.2 billion, which is 1.66 percent less than the previous year, according to the NMHH’s research.
The beginning of the year, January and March, were the busiest, with users clicking 7.2 percent more in the first month and 11.7 percent more in the third month than in an average month. Predictable trends were often influenced by unexpected events. The first such event of the year occurred at the end of February with the completion of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The first two days of the Russian offensive resulted in approximately thirty million extra clicks on Hungarian websites, most of which were “pocketed” by the news portals. The parliamentary election held on April 3rd interested the citizens just as much as the events of the war, although after the announcement of the results they did not spend much time news readers spent weeks following the events. The death of Krisztián Berki on the 6th of May literally blew up the Internet. People woke up to find him dead in the morning, and then bombarded their browsers with fresh news all day long – half-information, fake news, anecdotes, investigative reports, and live broadcasts kept the Internet awake. inexhaustible curiosity.
Everyone is interested in the weather and world events
In 2022, two major “flashes”, or jumps, are due to the surprise caused by the weather: the heavy rains at the beginning of June and the “storm” on August 20, when those going to the fireworks became very curious about whether they should bring umbrellas with them.
The events of the world began to advance from February 24 (the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war), when netizens downloaded 9.21 million pages on the topic of foreign affairs on the largest news portals in one day. After that, on November 15, the case of the rocket fired into Poland highlighted foreign events from the multitude of news. Among the articles of an economic nature, in addition to the introduction of the gasoline price cap, the transformation of the kata law has become a really important public matter. In the case of sports news, the first serious increase in interest could be seen during the European Handball Championship jointly organized by Hungary and Slovakia, but netizens were also interested in the men’s European Water Polo Championship in Split, and of course the Qatar Soccer World Cup in December.
These were the reasons why Hungarian online public discourse was loud
News sites, online magazines, television channels, printed media products, and even radio stations cannot afford not to be present on social media. One of the measures of the popularity of the posts is the number of interactions, which can be analyzed to determine which information and news reach the users the most, with what emotions they react to them, and which ones are considered worth sharing. Based on these data, the 2022 news calendar was compiled as follows.
- January: our Olympic champion gymnast Szilveszter Csollány passed away on the 24th; changing the protection certificate to a vaccination certificate; the arrival of truck convoys protesting the closures and vaccination in Ottawa and the blockade of the Canadian capital.
- February: entry of Russian military troops into Ukraine, news related to the events of the war; Liu Shaoang’s Winter Olympic gold medal; mass arrival of Ukrainian refugees to our borders.
- March: reports on the most important events of the Russian-Ukrainian war; the Hungarian election campaign; Reducing the chances of Hungary getting involved in the war.
- April: parliamentary election campaign; election and referendum results; The death of Christiano Ronaldo’s newborn son.
- May: the unexpected death of Krisztián Berki; Death of Péter Haumann; Hungarian sports successes (gold medal for Katinka Hószlú and Kristóf Milák, gold medal for Áron Szilágyi and the women’s sword team, silver medal for the men’s sword team).
- June: 0–4 football win over England; restoration of Spaniards and counties; countless Hungarian sports successes (football, pentathlon, swimming, open water swimming, water polo, fencing, wrestling, kayak-canoeing, aerobics, and synchronized swimming).
- July: debates about not having fireworks; reform of the kata law and demonstrations against the measure; modifications related to overhead reduction.
- August: the erroneous weather report on August 20 and the subsequent dismissal of the leaders of the OMSZ; announcement of farmers’ demonstrations across the country and farmers’ absence; changing logging rules and protests against it.
- September: teachers’ strike and demonstration; II. Death of the British Queen Elizabeth; The victory of the Hungarian national football team in Ádám Szalai’s last match.
- October: teacher demonstrations; Balázsék Sebestyén’s Colombian adventures and atrocities; The statement of Gáspár Győző (Győzike) that he would give his blood for Viktor Orbán.
- November: end-of-match cleaning by Japanese fans in Qatar; Death of Kálmán Mészöly; The retirement of Balázs Dzudzák.
- December: football World Cup events; Death of Pele; Christmas-themed posts and wishes on the occasion of the holiday.
The most used words in popular Facebook posts
The NMHH examined the posts of news portals and the official Facebook pages of more popular TV, radio, and newspapers from a different perspective. A text analysis of the 100 most popular posts each month sheds light on which words journalists prefer. The Hungarian is in the towering lead, but the national team, the war, the teacher, and the liar are also on the list. Sadly, the third most read word was “deceased.” Deaths evoke deep emotions in readers, whether they are previously unknown people or world famous.
NMHH
