The media can play an important role in the relationship between citizens and their government by acting as a watchdog and providing timely information about malfeasance and corruption. We examine whether citizens’ perceptions of government corruption are closer to country experts’ assessments in countries where there are higher levels of press freedom. Using data on citizens’ perceptions of government corruption and country expert evaluations of levels of political corruption for over 100 countries, we present evidence that the relationship between expert measures of corruption and citizens’ perceptions is heightened as the level of press freedom increases across our sample. These findings suggest that a free press can play an important role in bringing corruption to light, educating citizens, and potentially allowing them to better hold their elected officials accountable.
American politics and horror have been linked since the birth of the United States. Within this genre, two frames of horror are common: the classic and the conflicted. The 2016 presidential campaign advertisements of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton employed these horror frames in vastly different ways. Analysis of these ads as a part of an extended message to the American public reveals that Clinton primarily used a conflicted horror frame when attacking Trump, with some rare usage of the classic horror frame. Further, her campaign gave little in the way of audience efficacy through positive assessments of herself, specific policy proposals to defeat the monster, or calls for collective, mob action. Trump, however, almost exclusively used the classic horror frame to articulate threats to America. Even though this frame is more conducive to conventional demonization and fear mongering, Trump also included specific policy proposals, numerous positive assessments of himself, and a call for mob action by American voters to slay the monsters facing the country.
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