Costs and Benefits of Stem Cell Research and Treatment: Media Presentation and Audience Understanding in Hungary

This study examined the press coverage and audience understanding of the costs and benefits of stem cell research/treatment in Hungary. A content analysis of five newspapers and a focus group study was conducted. The way participants talked about the costs and benefits in many aspects echoed the dominant framing of the issue in the press (medical benefits = main benefit, high expense of treatment = dominant negative aspect). Even though participants applied analogical reasoning to formulate some risks that were missing from the reporting on stem cells, many gaps of the media coverage were echoed in gaps in lay discussions.

Media presentation and public understanding of stem cells and stem cell research in Hungary

This paper reports on a research project which examined media coverage and audience perceptions of stem cells and stem cell research in Hungary, using focus groups and a media analysis. A background study was also conducted on the Hungarian legal, social and political situation linked to stem cell research, treatment and storage. Our data shows how stem cell research/treatments were framed by the focus group members in terms of medical results/cures and human interest stories – mirroring the dominant frames utilized by the Hungarian press. The spontaneous discourse on stem cells in the groups involved a non-political and non-controversial understanding – also echoing the dominant presentation of the media. Comparing our results with those of a UK study, we found that although there are some similarities, UK and Hungarian focus group participants framed the issue of stem cell research differently in many respects – and these differences often echoed the divergences of the media coverage in the two countries. We conclude by arguing against approaches which attribute only negligible influence to the media – especially in the case of complex scientific topics and when the dominant information source for the public is the media.

Winning Media Strategies in the Time of the Economic Crisis

At the time of the economic crisis cutting marketing and media expenses is a common corporate reaction. While this reaction is rather obvious, this may not be the winning option. To find out more about successful media strategies authors conducted a broad, multiple method research, including interviews with industry experts (N=6, leading decision makers), scrutiny of consumer narratives (N=100), content analysis of forum and blog entries (N=7086 comments) and focus group interviews (N=4). Research findings point to realignment in media spending namely better-targeted communications programs and more fragmented media choice, and besides, show the increasing role of audience participation, too. Authors argue that careful managerial efforts for harmonizing consumer problems and advertising content may result in finding the path from problem level to desired level in marketing communication practices even in crisis periods.

The Attributes of Social Media as a Strategic Marketing Communication Tool

New digital trends are transforming the media industry landscape, modifying elemental characteristics and attitudes of companies as well as of consumers. Firms often claim that their presence in social media (SM) is a key element to success. SM helps companies rethink the traditional one-way flow of their marketing messages and to incorporate a new interactive pattern into their communications. Nevertheless, these tendencies involve problems of strategic myopia for firms that do not structurally integrate these tools. One main problem is that institutions can rarely differentiate between the various types of SM and the attributes thereof, while the literature equally reveals a number of contradictions in the subject. The present conceptual paper lays the foundations of a strategic approach to SM and discusses its theoretical implications. Following an overview on the concept of SM, through a content analysis of the specialized management literature (n = 14), we present various best practices and reflect on the apparent lack of strategic thinking in using SM as a marketing application. Then, we compare these practical examples with general marketing strategy theory. By merging theory and practice, we aim to provide an insight towards a well-founded application of SM as a genuinely strategic marketing tool.

Computer Assisted Content Analysis of the print press coverarge of corruption in Hungary

Coverage of corruption in the Hungarian media was analyzed using four online news portals. Three of them, Magyar Nemzet Online (short name: MNO, web: mno.hu), Népszava (web: nepszava.hu) and Heti Világgazdaság (web: hvg.hu) are also available as newspapers but the content of these papers is different from the online form to a certain extent. The news portal Origo (web: origo.hu) has no print version.