Racism and media: a response from Australia during the global pandemic

Abstract

Gavan Titley’s book Racism and Media (2019) is a much needed and compelling intervention on this enduring topic. One of the many significant contributions of the book is to develop an account of racisms as multiple and contextually specific, and to advocate for situated arguments rather than abstract principals. In this response, I attempt to extend Titley’s transnational and locally specific approach. In order to resist or complicate the potential for Eurocentrism, I argue for further attention to scholarship and practice on racism and settler colonialism; on intersectionality; and on the crucial decolonial and self-determination work of Indigenous, community and alternative media. Writing from Australia on the anniversary of the Christchurch massacre and against resurgent Sinophobia during the global covid-19 pandemic, Titley’s impressive and comprehensive book provides an ideal springboard for further developing the vital themes of racism and media across transnational contexts.