New values, race and 'The Hanson Debate' in Australian media

While the media are not to blame for racism, they are deeply implicated in reproducing the assumptions which maintain popular misconceptions about race as an inevitable cause of social divisions. This is evident in the Australian, as well as Asian, media focus on Pauline Hanson's politics of fear since her maiden speech in the Australian Federal Parliament in September 1996. This article outlines some of the ways by which the 'quality' press, Sydney Morning Herald; and populist television program, 60 Minutes, developed the public discourse around race and immigration which effectively legitimised the unsupported assumptions of Hanson and her supporters.