Cultural Drivers of Radicalisation

Hungary/D5.1 May 2021

Abstract

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.