Media Coverage of Corruption and Scandal in the 2016 Presidential Election: Fantasy Themes of Crooked Hillary and Corrupt Businessman Trump
Corruption, Accountability and Discretion
ISBN: 978-1-78743-556-8, eISBN: 978-1-78743-555-1
Publication date: 24 October 2017
Abstract
This chapter explores the media coverage of the 2016 Presidential campaign and reveals the corruption fantasy themes that emerged. Media coverage of corruption can uniquely affect voter attitudes and public policy formulation and implementation, as revealed in previous scholarship on media coverage of corruption. By tracing the competing narratives offered in media coverage utilizing the constant comparative method, the dramatic characters, Crooked Hillary and Corrupt Businessman Trump, are identified and their storylines are explicated. Analysis reveals these dramatic fantasy themes chained through social media, evincing and promoting the narratives that drove media coverage of our political leaders and public policy results. The chapter illustrates that the narratives involving corruption were prominent and negative, further indicating that the media’s obsession with scandal contributed to and supported the narratives that portrayed both candidates as corrupt, adding pollution to the 2016 U.S. political environment.
Keywords
Citation
McHale, J.P. (2017), "Media Coverage of Corruption and Scandal in the 2016 Presidential Election: Fantasy Themes of Crooked Hillary and Corrupt Businessman Trump", Corruption, Accountability and Discretion (Public Policy and Governance, Vol. 29), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 107-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2053-769720170000029006
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited