The role of social media influencers in amplifying pro-government narratives – The case of Hungary

The fragmentation and hybridisation of contemporary media systems has not only challenged the agenda-setting role of legacy media and political elites, but also opened new avenues for governments to push their narratives through unconventional channels. Social media influencers have gained special prominence in communicating political messages to Gen Z and younger audiences, which has led to their incorporation into the campaign strategies of political parties, and governments, too, thus elevating rather than limiting the agenda-setting potential and discursive power (Jungherr et al. 2019) of the latter. This has contributed to the decentralisation of political campaigns and provided opportunities to circumvent legal thresholds on campaign spending, which may be especially relevant in an autocratizing context (Lührmann&Lindberg 2019). This paper explores how the Hungarian governing party, Fidesz, relied on a network of pro-government social media influencers in its 2022 re-election bid, and evaluates the success of this strategy in reaching and mobilising young audiences. In doing so, it will first take a historical approach to recapitulate how the Hungarian media system’s partisan dynamics have changed since the current governing party gained supermajority in 2010, and how this has contributed to the establishment of a dominant pro-government media conglomerate comprised of a mix of national TV and radio channels, national, regional and local dailies, weekly magazines, tabloids, and online newspapers. The analysis will also cover how the redirection of state-funded advertisement budgets by the government and SOEs (Bátorfy&Urbán 2020) has underpinned the financial viability of an extended media network colonized by a single party (Bajomi-Lázár 2013). The second part of the paper will use media reach and coverage statistics to underline why such investments have been largely ineffective in addressing young (‹30) audiences, and what alternative tactics the Hungarian government has followed to increase its reach within this cohort. The analysis will cover both failed as well as successful attempts by the government’s communications machinery to appeal to young audiences. Furthermore, it will describe the legal environment on campaign financing and show how it has enabled government overspending in social media. Beyond taking stock of the media arsenal deployed by Fidesz, the paper will present an empirical case study on the impact of an informal network and training centre for social media influencers called Megafon Centre. This not-for-profit company has used its resources allegedly generated from private donations to train conservative influencers on how to amplify their impact, as well as to sponsor social media posts by pro-government influencers echoing the central messaging of Fidesz’ 2022 electoral campaign. The paper will rely on publicly available Facebook ad spending and post engagement statistics to test whether and to what extent cooperation with pro-government influencers amplified the government’s narrative in the selected target groups. More generally, the paper aims to contribute to an emerging literature on the role of social media influencers as political agenda-setters (Schmuck et al. 2022, Suuronen et al. 2021) and argues that more research is needed on non-elite social media communication to understand what shapes the political attitudes of younger cohorts.