News about refugees and public opinion in the autumn of 2015: First results of a media effect study

Abstract Our analysis presents the findings of a questionnaire survey carried out among Hungarian university students in September and October 2015. We investigated a) the effects of media-representation of refugees on attitudes in a survey-experiment using vignettes; and b) the correlations between the patterns of mediaconsumption and attitudes. The media-contents presented on the vignettes have moderate impacts on the respondents’’ attitudes towards refugees. Nonetheless, the responses are sensitive to the wording of the vignettes and the questions. On the other hand, the patterns of media-consumption are strongly linked to attitudes. The tabloid vs. non-tabloid divide of the news sources is at least as important as the left-right divide in explaining the differences in attitudes. There also are substantial differences between the students’ opinions in Budapest and the South-Western town of Pecs. Keywords: refugees, public opinion, media-effect, survey-experiment, vignette