Editing Herald Sun (section)

====African gangs moral panic====
Following fighting at the 2016 [[Moomba Festival]] in Melbourne, the paper embarked on a 32-month campaign employing racialised language attacking supposed [[African gangs moral panic|African gangs]] in the city.<ref name="Kounmouris-2021">{{cite journal |last1=Kounmouris |first1=Gregory |last2=Blaustein |first2=Jarrett |title=Reporting 'African gangs': Theorising journalistic practice during a multi-mediated moral panic |journal=Crime, Media, Culture |date=2021 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=105–125 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/1741659021991205 |access-date=15 June 2024}}</ref><ref name="Benier">{{cite web |last1=Benier |first1=Kathryn |last2=Blaustein |first2=Jarrett |last3=Johns |first3=Diana |last4=Maher |first4=Sarah |title=‘Don’t drag me into this’ Growing up South Sudanese in Victoria after the 2016 Moomba 'riot' |url=https://cmy.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Dont-Drag-Me-Into-This-Research-Report-Oct-2018-FINAL.pdf |website=Centre for Multicultural Youth |publisher=Monash University |access-date=15 June 2024 |archive-date=15 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240615173322/https://cmy.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Dont-Drag-Me-Into-This-Research-Report-Oct-2018-FINAL.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Civic and state leaders, community members and the police denied that any such gangs existed, but the paper published 130 articles over a two year period featuring the words "Sudanese" and "gang",<ref name="Benier">{{cite web |last1=Benier |first1=Kathryn |last2=Blaustein |first2=Jarrett |last3=Johns |first3=Diana |last4=Maher |first4=Sarah |title=‘Don’t drag me into this’ Growing up South Sudanese in Victoria after the 2016 Moomba 'riot' |url=https://cmy.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Dont-Drag-Me-Into-This-Research-Report-Oct-2018-FINAL.pdf |website=Centre for Multicultural Youth |publisher=Monash University |access-date=15 June 2024 |archive-date=15 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240615173322/https://cmy.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Dont-Drag-Me-Into-This-Research-Report-Oct-2018-FINAL.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and 173 (including 37 editorials) mentioning "Apex" a supposed gang for which little evidence existed.<ref name="Kounmouris-2021">{{cite journal |last1=Kounmouris |first1=Gregory |last2=Blaustein |first2=Jarrett |title=Reporting 'African gangs': Theorising journalistic practice during a multi-mediated moral panic |journal=Crime, Media, Culture |date=2021 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=105–125 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/1741659021991205 |access-date=15 June 2024}}</ref> The racialising and criminalising coverage of [[African Australians]] increased racism against this group and created many problems for the community.<ref name="Benier-2020">{{cite journal |last1=Benier |first1=Kathryn |last2=Wickes |first2=Rebecca |last3=Moran |first3=Clare |title='African gangs' in Australia: Perceptions of race and crime in urban neighbourhoods |journal=Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology |date=2020 |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=1–19 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0004865820965647#:~:text=This%20event%20led%20to%20a,and%20institutionalised%20forms%20of%20discrimination. |access-date=14 June 2024 |archive-date=14 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614122747/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0004865820965647#:~:text=This%20event%20led%20to%20a,and%20institutionalised%20forms%20of%20discrimination. |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Majavu-2018">{{cite journal |last1=Majavu |first1=Mandisi |title=The 'African gangs' narrative: associating Blackness with criminality and other anti-Black racist tropes in Australia |journal=African and Black Diaspora|date=2018 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=27–39 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17528631.2018.1541958 |access-date=23 June 2024}}</ref> The Herald Sun's intense focus on criminality in the [[Sudanese Australian]] community, out of all proportion from its real scale, has been described by academics as playing a key role in fomenting a [[moral panic]].<ref name="Majavu-2018" /><ref name="Benier-2020" /><ref name="Benier" /><ref name="Kounmouris-2021" />