Nyitóoldal Rosta M., Sik E. (2025). Introduction: Informational Autocracy and the Moral Panic Button – Using Migration Discourse as Manipulation at Master Level.

Rosta M., Sik E. (2025). Introduction: Informational Autocracy and the Moral Panic Button – Using Migration Discourse as Manipulation at Master Level.

2025. 12.31.

Rosta M., Sik E. (2025). Introduction: Informational Autocracy and the Moral Panic Button – Using Migration Discourse as Manipulation at Master Level. Central and Eastern European Migration Review 14(2): 91-96. doi: 10.54667/ceemr.2025.26

Abstract

The articles in the special section concentrate on a particular form of governance (informational autocracy) and on its core technology to acquire hegemony for the ruling power over political communication (the moral panic button). The example is Hungary; Poland serves as a point of reference, and the Russian war against Ukraine provides the conditions of a natural experiment. The case studies demonstrate that the primary topic of MPB is migration as the ultimate threat, and how those actors accused of creating, maintaining, and using the migration flow to destroy the sovereignty of the Hungarian state are used as scapegoats.

Keywords: informational autocracy, moral panic button, Hungary, Poland, NLP, manipulation