Racism, amplification, and mainstreaming: News media and the Australian far right

This chapter critically explores the relationship between news media and the far right. The role of news media in the amplification, mainstreaming and normalisation of the far right has come into focus in recent years. Scholarly explanations for the complex, co-constitutive and mutually beneficial relationship between news media and the far right typically centre around political economy. The controversial and antagonistic communication style of the far right is said to align with the commercial logics of news organisations. We suggest that political-economic explanations, while compelling, fail to holistically grasp the seeming elective affinity between news media and the far right. Using the Australian context as a case study, we consider how the presence of structural racism and whiteness within news organisations may produce editorial outcomes favourable to the politics of the far right. Our chapter concludes by encouraging scholars to consider the racialised institutional logics of contemporary news organisations in the relationship between news media and the far right.