International Journal of Communication
Publishes a Special Section on Political Scandals

This Special Section on “Political Scandals as a Democratic Challenge” brings together seven original papers (plus an editorial introduction) on current international research in the area of political scandals. The complexity of these processes underlines the need for critical, interdisciplinary research, and this Special Section includes a systematic review of research examining the various effects of political scandals, and a paper analyzing the psychological reactions of politicians involved in scandals.

 

The Section focuses on the primary question: What are the roles–and effects–of mediated political scandals on democratic processes?

A central topic in several of the articles is the contradictory status of journalism as an important “watchdog” institution, holding political leaders to account, and media institutions as a “scandal machine” that ignores serious political misdeeds and inflates the importance of trivial norm violations. Other papers discuss how politicians and power holders may provoke and use staged mediated scandals in order to influence the public agenda and smear competitors. The complexity of such scandalization processes underlines the need of critical, interdisciplinary research, and this Special Section includes a systematic review of research examining the various effects of political scandals and a paper analyzing the psychological reactions of politicians involved in scandals.

We invite you to read these eight articles that just published in the International Journal of Communication on August 6, 2018. Please Ctrl+Click on the article titles below to hyperlink to the papers of interest.

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Political Scandals as a Democratic Challenge: From Important Revelations to Provocations, Trivialities, and Neglect. Introduction
Sigurd Allern, Christian von Sikorski

Blunders, Scandals, and Strategic Communication in U.S. Foreign Policy: Benghazi vs. 9/11
Robert Entman, Sarah Stonbely

Political Scandals Under Responsive Authoritarianism: The Case of the Bo Xilai Trial in China
Francis L. F. Lee

“Assassination Campaigns”: Corruption Scandals and News Media Instrumentation
Paolo Mancini

The New Normal: Scandals as a Standard Feature of Political Life in Nordic Countries
Ester Pollack, Sigurd Allern, Anu Kantola, Mark Ørsten

The Aftermath of Political Scandals: A Meta-Analysis
Christian von Sikorski

Powerful and Powerless: Psychological Reactions of Norwegian Politicians Exposed in Media Scandals
Kim Edgar Karlsen, Fanny Duckert

Hidden Traps: An Essay on Scandals — Commentary
Hans Mathias Kepplinger

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Larry Gross
Editor 

Arlene Luck
Managing Editor

Sigurd Allern, Christian von Sikorski
Guest Editors