Far Right and the Media

Imogen Richards is a senior lecturer in criminology at Deakin University, Australia. Her research examines comparative forms of political violence, with a particular focus on the mediation of violence and its dynamics. Her solo and co-authored books include Neoliberalism and Neo-Jihadism (2020), Criminologists in the Media (2022), Global Heating and the Australian Far Right (2023), and The Aesthetic Politics of Far-Right Environmentalism (2025).

• 1. Introduction: media, democracy, and the global rise of the far right 2. The media and the mainstreaming of the far right: reporting, enabling or countering? 3. The role of the media in normalising the far right: evidence from Spain and Portugal 4. Racism, amplification, and mainstreaming: news media and the Australian far right 5. Media bias and political silos: how the American media covered the January 6 insurrection 6. How the mainstream media can challenge terrorist propaganda: a case study of the Christchurch terrorist 7. “Grim hallmarks”: the far right, the media and the war in Gaza 8. The incel other: German media depiction of incels between misogynist terrorists and the ‘Tatort’ Appendices

“While there has been a great deal of attention paid to the role of social media on the rise and mainstreaming of the far right in recent years, the very same mainstream media that has reported on it and played a significant role, has experienced critical scrutiny and analysis. That makes this outstanding interdisciplinary collection on the complex and often contradictory relationship between news media coverage in particular and the mainstreaming of the far right across different democratic contexts such as the UK, UK, Australia, Spain, Portugal, Germany and others an important and much needed intervention. What is more, it goes beyond traditional approaches to media bias and propaganda, or binary understandings that see the media and democracy on one side, and extremist threats to the latter and truth on the other, but looks at the ways that mainstream media can enable and accommodate or constrain, challenge and combat the far right and reactionary tendencies. The research and analysis in this collection show us another way to not only understand the complex role of the media in the mainstreaming of the far right and processes involved, but also hold the media to account and address them. It is for that reason I recommend this book to researchers, activists, and, crucially, journalists.”Aaron Winter, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Lancaster University