New media and technology, especially television, video, and the internet have often been discussed as a means of democracy, since they can provide a mass audience with both information and entertainment. At the same time, however, by manipulating the information and presenting a simplified vision of reality, the media become not only a source of information, but also of control and manipulation. Drawing on a topical theme of terrorism and imitating the generic conventions of the thriller, Richard Flanagan´s novel The Unknown Terrorist does not only depict terrorism and violence, but also contemporary postmodern life in a postcolonial Australian urban setting influenced by media, information technologies and consumerism. The paper focuses on the way Flanagan´s use of postmodern narrative techniques, especially of parody, metafiction and intertextuality, enable the author to undermine a unified and unproblematic vision of reality and thus represent a freedom from the narrative conventions giving an unproblematic and simplified version of reality. Flanagan´s use of postmodern narrative techniques also point out not only the freedom, but the manipulation, control and consumerism the media can produce. Finally, I will discuss the way these narrative techniques contribute to Flanagan´s depiction of racism and racial relationship in a technologically advanced postcolonial society such as Australia.