“Others also tried to produce newsreel, but they couldn't”:
Newsreel in the media field of the coalition era in Hungary, 1945-48

This paper explores the production, distribution and consumption of newsreel in the media field of the multi-party coalition era between 1945 and 1948 in Hungary. Although newsreel had been a key medium of political communication in this era, the topic remained rather under-researched. Relying on Bourdieu’s conceptual framework of “fields” and “capitals”, we explore the characteristics of the media field of this historical period, and locate newsreel within that field. First, we introduce the concept of “audience capital” (a theoretical innovation). Audience capital refers to A) the size of the audience reached by a given medium, and B) the trust of the public in that medium. We discuss the audience capital of competing newsreel by different producers. The paper uses both primary and secondary sources concerning the political and media history of the era, including quantitative audience research from the period. The results show that newsreel had a large audience, but the audience probably trusted newsreel less than the contemporary party press. Second, we show that in 1945, early acquisition of the technological production capacity of newsreel as well as cinemas (for showing newsreel) gave the Hungarian Communist Party an important advantage over other producers in the areas of newsreel production, distribution and screening. However, economic considerations have remained important to all coalition parties, because party-owned cinemas generated considerable revenue for party financing. Finally, we conduct an original content analysis of the political coverage of the two available newsreel. Our analysis of the Weekly News (the central public service/state newsreel) finds a cautious, formal-representational approach to politics. In Mafirt Chronicle (the Communist Party’s newsreel), however, strong political considerations were present throughout. In strategic periods, these newsreel were also used openly for the propaganda and election campaign purposes of the Hungarian Communist Party.