Bias and Polarization in the Qatargate Scandal: A Social Media Perspective

Abstract

While legacy media have received increasing attention in the literature on media and corruption in recent years, the role of digital media and, in particular, social media is still an open question in corruption and anti-corruption studies Through this study, we aim to partially bridge the existing gap in literature by focusing our attention on the study of a corruption scandal, namely the Qatargate scandal. We will demonstrate that the affordances of platforms could exacerbate the instrumentalization of corruption scandals, emphasizing the contrast of positions and creating new (and reiterating old) biases in the narrative of a corruption case.