Print it yourself! - Grassroots efforts against misinformation

Attila Gáspár

Keywords: elections, hybrid regimes, information campaigns

TL;DR: Submitted for the 4th (Constrained Liberalism) session

Abstract: Can increasing access to independent information sources pierce the authoritarian information space? In this paper we ask this question by looking at the case of Hungary. We study the electoral impact of a grass-roots movement (Nyomtass te is, or "Print It Yourself" in English) that distributes printed newsletters to small towns and villages in rural Hungary. These newsletters compile politically relevant news stories from independent media outlets that were mostly hushed up by the mainstream pro-government media ecosystem. We use one data set on settlement level distribution data and another on geo-referenced delivery routes to show that the newsletter had a small but considerable positive effect on opposition support and turnout during the Hungarian national election of 2022. In our preferred specification a fully canvassed precinct was expected to have +2.2 percentage points of opposition vote share compared to one where the newsletter was not distributed at all (within-settlement). The coefficients on newsletter distribution in some specifications are an order of magnitude smaller than the coefficients on opposition campaign efforts, suggesting that the (lack of) on-the-ground visibility of opposition politicians was probably a larger factor in shaping the election result (a resounding win for Fidesz), than the public's access to news stories.