The media and the mainstreaming of the far right reporting, enabling or countering?

As in academia, the coverage of the ‘rise’ and ‘resurgence’ of far-right politics has been ubiquitous across the media. This is hardly surprising as reactionary politics has always allowed for a mix of morbid fascination, voyeurism and self-righteousness on the part of those who feel they are studying or covering it from the ‘right side’. However, we argue that, rather than being objective bystanders simply reporting on the far right from the democratic side, the mainstream media often plays an active role in enabling reactionary politics, whether consciously or not. We contend that this takes place through various media frames and associated messages, which, somewhat paradoxically, encourage the audience to look at the far right as ‘bad eggs’ (through exceptionalisation, amplification and deflection) and yet to empathise with their position (through euphemisation, trivialisation, humanisation and idealisation). By drawing on examples from media reporting, we highlight how this dual message plays a key role in mainstreaming the far right (through delegitimisation and legitimisation) and how greater engagement with ethical reporting practices is needed to counter rather than enable these processes.