Public perceptions under the spotlight: The role of public communication in shaping acceptance and resistance towards nuclear energy and battery manufacturing in Hungary

The scope of the paper is the examination, comparison and analysis of the public perception of the nuclear energy and battery manufacturing sectors in Hungary with a focus on the role of public communication in the effectiveness of public acceptance. The study uses focus group discussions conducted in three cities in Hungary and analyses their results using thematic analysis. The study investigates the levels of knowledge of the respondents regarding the subject, their perceptions of sectoral benefits and risks, trust in various stakeholders, and the effect of public communication. These are revealed in eight coding frames, which provide a detailed map to the data on each research subtopic (dimensions, categories, subcategories, definitions, occurrence), while representative examples are provided in the Results. The study reveals complex knowledge levels on both investigated sectors, with nuclear energy seen as providing for energy safety and being good for the environment, whereas battery manufacturing was associated with economic profit and environmental pollution. Trust in the government and industry, as well as the credibility of the scientific community significantly differed between the two sectors. We can conclude that media communication and corporate public communication play a critical role in perception. Furthermore, to gain confidence in battery manufacturing, targeted sensitive sector frameworks should be used to address concerns and to emphasize benefits to the public.