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Corruption in the News: Complicity in Canadian Newspaper Claimsmaking, 1980-2023
Karl Guebert1, Steven Bittle1, Jon Frauley1
1Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
None:
This paper explores the symbolic dimension of corruption in the print media, or the rhetoric deployed that reproduces a particular discursive order. Employing an abductive materialist analysis and drawing insight from the political-economy and critical anti-corruption(ism) literatures, we examined over 2300 news items on corporate corruption in five prominent Canadian newspapers. In addition to finding differing and contradictory notions of corruption, we identify three phases of (anti)corruption rhetoric that represent notable moments in the struggle over the meaning of corruption and how to curb it. The paper concludes that Canadian newspapers have reproduced the language and claims of powerful voices emanating from the international realm rather than scrutinizing these claims, resulting in an incoherent Canadian popular discourse on corruption.
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