The Far Right and the Media

This book examines how far-right politics and news media shape one another, exposing, contesting, and at times inadvertently legitimising white supremacist, violent misogynist, and other far-right ideas.

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