Ideological Misinformation: How News Corp Australia amplifies the discourses of the reactionary right

Abstract: This paper analyses the interactions between Australian mainstream media and social media political influencers and how these interactions amplify ideological misinformation. Social media, particularly YouTube, is increasingly a primary source of news and information for people, principally in the younger 18 – 35-year demographic. Yet while social media has opened up horizontal networks of mass self-communication that allow anyone with an internet to communicate on a mass scale, it has also precipitated a significant rise in the dissemination of reactionary right and extremist messages. The analysis is embedded in Manuel Castells network society theory and utilising Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis framework and José van Dijck’s combination of the Network Society theory with Actor Network Theory. By analysing the discourses employed by News Corp around notions of “identity politics” “western civilisation” and “the left”, this paper argues that the discourses of News Corp Australia are largely the same as the Alternative Influence Network (AIN) on YouTube – a loosely connected group of reactionary right-wing influencers. It further analyses the way News Corp reports on these influencers, concluding that the intertwining discursive patterns of both News Corp and the AIN have the effect of discriminating against a range of minority groups due to its centring of white, western identity as default. News Corp produces and amplifies ideological misinformation through both power and counterpower communication networks. This is concerning considering News Corp’s prominence and influence in the Australian media landscape. Finally, it argues that the ideological misinformation amplified by News Corp Australia is contributing to a new ideological paradigm that combines populist nationalism with neoliberalism.