Media, nationalism, and environmental degradation: Tropes and narratives of crisis and conflict in Hungary and India

This article explores rhetorical operations and effects of nationalistic tropes in crisis communication. The authors aim to show how nationalist agendas rhetorically manipulate crisis narratives to consolidate power and deflect accountability. They focus on two case studies of nationalism: Hungary and India both offer examples of nationalism leveraging tropes of environmental degradation in different ways for similar ends of power. The article explores how these two different hybrid regimes, at once democratic and autocratic, craft nationalism rhetorically through tropes of environmental degradation. The comparative rhetorical study, representing both Eastern European and South Asian case studies, shows how, in Hungary, nationalistic rhetoric turns attention away from environmental degradation linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, downplaying the increased need for Ukrainian migration to neighboring Hungary; while, in India, media reports from government sources turn attention to environmental degradation from climate change as causing the Chamoli disaster, downplaying the role of dam construction that Raini villagers have spent decades voicing as making the mountain uninhabitable. The study highlights how, in these case studies, media circulation of tropes of environmental degradation serves nationalistic ends in varying but related ways, and how these tropes both interpellate and undermine public trust, resulting in a threat accelerant to Midnight on the Doomsday Clock. The study highlights, too, that solutions range from critical awareness of the rhetoric of environmental degradation tropes in media circulation to legal advancements, to collaborative efforts between science, local communities, and policymakers to restore balance and trust in crisis communication.