ABSTRACT
Corruption largely feeds scandals. Numbers in this regard do not exist, but there is no doubt that many, if not most, mediated scandals involve corruption, at least those scandals that have relevance for debate in the public arena. However, there is a bias regarding how these scandals are discussed by the social scientific community. Indeed, almost all the existing literature on the matter focuses on Western, liberal democracies (Thompson 2000; Canel & Sanders 2006; Allern & Pollack 2012; Entman, 2012). In particular, scandals that involve public figures have frequently been the subject of these studies. Specific cases have been analyzed and more theoretically oriented interpretations suggested, always taking into account the social and political realities of those countries that have long adopted the structures and procedures of what is usually defined as liberal democracy, even if relevant differences exist among these countries. In liberal democracies news media are supposed to play a major role in controlling and uncovering unlawful behavior that contrasts with shared expectations in these countries (Tumber & Waisbord 2004).
