Between science communication and political mobilization: The Hungarian anti-GMO image events

Science communication increasingly employs novel media formats borrowed from visual media and contemporary art. These formats include interventions in political discourses; they situate actors and confer or contest legitimacy, blurring the lines between public engagement and political mobilization. This article investigates the Hungarian anti-GMO protests (2005–15) as a key case study of this hybridity. It explores the tensions that arise when the participatory formats of science communication are used for the strategic goals of a social movement. Through a visual content and framing analysis of 118 images and event materials, this study asks what types of ideological messages are transmitted when scientific issues are transformed into political symbols. The analysis finds that by prioritizing affective messaging and powerful visual metaphors over factual dissemination, the campaign created ambiguous symbols that facilitated political co-optation. This contributed to legislative changes that were unsatisfactory for many of the campaign’s allies, in fact, reinforcing the narratives of their political opponents. This research reveals how novel formats of science communication using visual media and initiating participation have the potential to become public rituals affirming a vision of the social and symbolic order, often at the expense of genuine scientific deliberation.