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Scandal Potential: How Political Context and News Congestion Affect the President's Vulnerability to Media Scandal

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  • Nyhan, Brendan

Abstract

Despite its importance in contemporary American politics, presidential scandal is poorly understood within political science. Scholars typically interpret scandals as resulting from the disclosure of official misbehavior, but the likelihood and intensity of media scandals is also influenced by the political and news context. This article provides a theoretical argument for two independent factors that should increase the president's vulnerability to scandal: low approval among opposition party identifiers and a lack of congestion in the news agenda. Using new data and statistical approaches, I find strong support for both claims. These results suggest that contextual factors shape the occurrence of political events and how such events are interpreted.

Suggested Citation

  • Nyhan, Brendan, 2015. "Scandal Potential: How Political Context and News Congestion Affect the President's Vulnerability to Media Scandal," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(2), pages 435-466, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:45:y:2015:i:02:p:435-466_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Wioletta Dziuda & William G. Howell, 2020. "Political Scandal: A Theory," Working Papers 2020-17, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    2. Belguise, Margot, 2024. "Red Herrings: A Model of Attention-Hijacking by Politicians," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1492, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    3. Belguise, Margot, 2024. "Red Herrings : A Model of Attention-Hijacking by Politicians," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 86, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    4. Giovanni Andreottola, 2020. "Signaling Valence in Primary Elections," CSEF Working Papers 559, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    5. Wioletta Dziuda & William G. Howell, 2021. "Political Scandal: A Theory," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 197-209, January.
    6. Gabriele Gratton & Richard Holden & Anton Kolotilin, 2018. "When to Drop a Bombshell," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(4), pages 2139-2172.
    7. Margot Belguise, 2024. "Red herrings: A model of attention-hijacking by politicians," Discussion Papers 2024-01, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    8. Sinha, Pankaj & Kumar, Amit & Biswas, Sumana & Gupta, Chirag, 2024. "Forecasting US Presidential Election 2024 using multiple machine learning algorithms," MPRA Paper 122490, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 22 Oct 2024.

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