Radicalisation in competitive authoritarian contexts: visualising refugees with DIY media

Abstract

This article focuses on how visual media interacts with the government practices in competitive authoritarian regimes. We argue that while the visual representation of refugees can in general mainstream radicalisation, it gains additional traction in authoritarian context as it streams political discontent away from the governments to ‘ungrateful’ refugees. The paper is built on an analysis of do-it-yourself (DIY) videos in Turkey and Hungary in relation to two specific events involving refugees. The extant research mostly looks into online activism via DIY media. However, we approach them from an opposite perspective and show that not only social movements, but also states benefit from the audience-making potential of DIY media insomuch as these videos appear less as government propaganda and more as representative of public opinion.