15 JUNE 2023 - Vrije UNIversiteit Brussel
‘The far right, the media and the construction of a reactionary people’
With Aurelien Mondon (University of Bath)
Joint DESIRE-ECHO Research Seminar
Building on the work he has done since the publication of Reactionary Democracy, co-authored with Aaron Winter in 2020, Aurelien Mondon will be discussing the role of the media in legitimising far right politics. Indeed, by inflating and misreading far right electoral success, the media often falsely construct the 'will of the people' as inherently reactionary. Moreover, due to the euphemistic labelling of far right parties as 'populist', media reports downplay and ignore the racist and extremist core of far right ideology.
About the researcher
Aurelien Mondon (he/him) is a Senior Lecturer in politics at the University of Bath. His research focuses predominantly on the impact of racism and populism on liberal democracies and the mainstreaming of far-right politics through elite discourse. His latest book Reactionary democracy: How racism and the populist far right became mainstream, co-written with Aaron Winter, is out with Verso.