Bolt’s unremarkable account of Black Lives Matter: critical discourse analysis of racism in Australian media

The murder of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on 25 May 2020 sparked global outrage and resulted in some of the largest Indigenous-led protests against social injustice in the history of Australia. Investigation into Australian media revealed Andrew Bolt’s influential coverage of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. Using critical discourse analysis, drawing on Fairclough and Foucault, this research exposes the discursive techniques used by Bolt to smear the political and ideological objectives of the protestors in order to persuade audiences to resist the call for change. Using a critical social work lens, the analysis reveals discourses of racism, nationalism and populism. We argue that exposing Bolt’s techniques of power could result in influential people who have a role in advocating for progressive social change, such as social workers, politicians, journalists, academics and researchers, becoming more critically aware and supporting more emancipatory representations of Indigenous Australians.