The Representation of Disinformation, Hybrid War and the Covid Epidemic in the Hungarian Media - a Discourse Analysis

Abstract

The discursive construction of the populist divide between us – the ingroup of “normal,” “patriotic” people – and them – the outgroup of “suspicious others,” the current enemy – is closely linked to the dissemination of disinformation. The spontaneous spread and interest-motivated dissemination of disinformation is occurring with unprecedented speed and efficiency as a result of info-communication technology. This undermines public trust in public institutions, including the media itself, and threatens democratic values and the political processes. This paper identifies and examines the EU-related populist media discourses of disinformation, hybrid warfare, and the COVID-19 epidemic in Hungary between July 2021 and February 2022. It will be shown to what extent the discourses accompanying the above events and phenomena were used by the individual media sources and the actors presented in them to challenge European institutions and their legitimacy, as well as the European integration project as a whole.