‘Accidental Celebrities’

Abstract

Using quantitative analysis, we analyzed the coverage of women indirectly involved in four major U.S. presidential scandals (Watergate, Iran-Contra, Clinton-Lewinsky affair, Ukraine quid pro quo) through 258 articles published in six magazines (The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Time, The New Yorker, Newsweek, Rolling Stone) to assess how they are described by journalists. Three assumptions guided our analysis. First, women are covered in a negative way even if they are not responsible for the scandal. Second, they are covered by the magazines in a stereotypical way to describe their behavior, their character, or their role in the scandal. Finally, the coverage of women involved in more recent scandals is less stereotypical and less negative. While the literature shows that women receive more negative coverage than men when they are responsible for political scandals, our results show that this is also the case for these “accidental celebrities”.