Medierte politiske skandaler: Sårbare politikere - usårbare partier?

Abstract

In his book Do Mediated Political Scandals Affect Party Popularity in Norway? Midtbø describes how scandals end political careers but rarely harm parties. This goes against common sense. The volume and negative tone in the media’s coverage suggest otherwise. Opinion polls reflect how people lose trust in parties. My aim is to explain this paradox. Two hypotheses are discussed: the party-favoritism hypothesis argues that people tend to overlook and forget about scandals that have hit their preferred party. The personalization hypothesis focuses on media content. Political scandals are rarely treated as political issues. The focus is on the personal drama, the politician’s moral downfall. The empirical analyses are performed on a survey material collected in 2012. Only the party-favoritism hypothesis is supported.