Populistic and one-sided reporting: ‘the media’ are accused of many things. However, what precisely they are accused of and how the media are evaluated varies depending on the political orientation and the medium. The Hungarian think tank ‘21 Research Centre’ and the Polish think tank ‘Project: Polska’ examined the rural media landscape in both countries. Each think tank conducted two focus groups with six participants chosen – among others – based on their political preferences and five in-depth interviews with media experts.

The focus groups in both countries revealed that the most frequent source of information for rural inhabitants is the internet rather than television or print media outlets. In Hungary, pro-government respondents gather information from different sources, even if these sources are not pro-government. This is not the case for the pro-opposition respondents. However, at the same time, the majority do not trust national media, which are described as Budapest-centered.