Anti-EU disinformation and propaganda as narrative means of political identity construction in the Hungarian context

The paper explores the social identity dynamics of member-state-originated disinformation and anti-EU propaganda by presenting an empirical study focusing on the case of Hungary over the first year of anti-Russian EU sanctions following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The study pursued a twofold objective. First, based on a comprehensive overview of the related literature, a deductive thematic analysis of relevant news articles sampled from government-controlled public service media outlet hirado.hu and pro-Russian fringe media outlet oroszhirek.hu was conducted to provide a detailed picture of disinformation in the Hungarian context. Second, a software-supported content analysis of the two news corpora-tested hypotheses based on the conceptual framework of Identity Entrepreneurship, in which anti-EU disinformation and propaganda is understood as part of a dynamic process of narrative social identity construction anchored to a national historical past of collective victimisation. The results showed that the intergroup patterns of evaluation and agency reflected a need for positive distinctiveness of the Hungarian ingroup as compared to the EU presented as an outgroup in these terms. The results are discussed in terms of the implications of identity entrepreneurship for the potential conflicts between political identity construction and shared control of disinformation in the EU.