Cascading corruption news: explaining the bias of media attention to Brazil’s political scandals

Cascatas de notícias sobre corrupção: explicando viés midiático nos escândalos brasileiros

Noticias cascada de corrupción: explicando parcialidad en la prensa sobre los escándalos brasileños

Cascades d’information sur la corruption: expliquer la partialité dans la presse lors des scandales du Brésil

Abstract

Through a content analysis of 8,800 news items and six months of front pages of three Brazilian newspapers, all dealing with corruption and political transgression, the present article documents the remarkable bias of media coverage toward corruption scandals. Said bias is examined as an informational phenomenon, arising from key systemic and commercial factors of Brazil’s news media: an information cascade of news on corruption formed, destabilizing the governing coalition and legitimizing the impeachment process of Dilma Rousseff. As this process gained momentum, questions of accountability were disregarded by the media, with harmful effects for democracy.

scandals; corruption; impeachment; information cascade; news