Media Coverage of Government and Politics on Scandals
JOUR420 Media Coverage of the Government and Politics
Final Paper
Topic: Coverage on Scandals
In light of the latest scandal involving a once well-respected Republican Congressman Mark Foley, and under-aged page, I felt it was relevant for this final paper to focus on scandals prompted by politicians. Scandals are one of the ‘hottest’ topics that the media thrive on, regardless of which decade they materialize in. For the same reasons as why infotainment (or just plain entertainment news) and celebrity gossip is so popular and never seems to cease, human beings with a natural curious behavior and a nose for dirty tittle-tattle feel that news on one’s private life is vital information, especially if it is not ethical or there is a dark secret involved. The media are aware that scandals sell, and as the cliché goes, “bad news is good news” and thus when a scandal erupts, extensive coverage is given to these juicy stories.
Alongside the ‘Mark Foley Page Scandal’ (Foleygate) which was first made public on 30 September 2006, I have chosen to also explore the coverage on two others scandals, the ‘Clinton-Lewinsky Sex Scandal’ (Monicagate) and ‘CIA Leak Scandal” (Plamagate) which broke on 17 January 1998 and 14 July 2003 respectively. As some of these scandals trailed over to the next year, there were countless articles written about them. As a result, for all three scandals, I limited the analysis to three articles which were written at different stages of the story from the newspapers The Washington Post, The New York Times and USA Today. To make it possible for comparison, I attempted to find similar dated articles from all three sources. While analyzing the articles, I considered the layout, use of quotations, clarity, language, published date and of course, content. As The Washington Post is most likely the more prominent newspaper out of the three, I would expect this paper to contain the most coverage with extensive detail. However, as USA Today has a
Final Paper
Topic: Coverage on Scandals
In light of the latest scandal involving a once well-respected Republican Congressman Mark Foley, and under-aged page, I felt it was relevant for this final paper to focus on scandals prompted by politicians. Scandals are one of the ‘hottest’ topics that the media thrive on, regardless of which decade they materialize in. For the same reasons as why infotainment (or just plain entertainment news) and celebrity gossip is so popular and never seems to cease, human beings with a natural curious behavior and a nose for dirty tittle-tattle feel that news on one’s private life is vital information, especially if it is not ethical or there is a dark secret involved. The media are aware that scandals sell, and as the cliché goes, “bad news is good news” and thus when a scandal erupts, extensive coverage is given to these juicy stories.
Alongside the ‘Mark Foley Page Scandal’ (Foleygate) which was first made public on 30 September 2006, I have chosen to also explore the coverage on two others scandals, the ‘Clinton-Lewinsky Sex Scandal’ (Monicagate) and ‘CIA Leak Scandal” (Plamagate) which broke on 17 January 1998 and 14 July 2003 respectively. As some of these scandals trailed over to the next year, there were countless articles written about them. As a result, for all three scandals, I limited the analysis to three articles which were written at different stages of the story from the newspapers The Washington Post, The New York Times and USA Today. To make it possible for comparison, I attempted to find similar dated articles from all three sources. While analyzing the articles, I considered the layout, use of quotations, clarity, language, published date and of course, content. As The Washington Post is most likely the more prominent newspaper out of the three, I would expect this paper to contain the most coverage with extensive detail. However, as USA Today has a