D5.1 Country Report | May 2021
Authors: Roland Fazekas and Umut Korkut, Glasgow Caledonian University
This report examines the media scene in Hungary and how it serves as a tool of radicalisation. It traces mediatisation of certain events that we call first migration related and second cultural legacies related radicalisation and follows the depiction of these issues both in legacy and social media. We interpret such two mechanisms as resonators of micro events to reach macro audiences. In the first instance, the issue relates to what appears as a racially incited attack by a tv camerawoman against an irregular migrant that happens to cross the Hungarian-Serbian border and enter Hungary. In the second instance, we review the general cultural scene in Hungary in order to depict more specifically how certain legacies are circulated and presented for general public consumption. In this instance, we depart from the politicisation of theatre and its consideration as a particular reflection of Hungarian national culture. We delineate more general cultural memes that replicate existing historical legacies in order to maintain theatre in particular and culture in general as pinnacles of keeping historical grievances alive and polarising the society along the themes that continue to serve as a currency of radicalisation. The conclusion wraps up our discussion as to why culture as a topic of research relates to understand the relationship between I-GAP spectrum as an instrument of radicalisation.