Managing public outrage: Power, scandal, and new media in contemporary Russia

Toepfl, Florian

doi:10.1177/1461444811405021

Cited by 65 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Scandal has been subject to academic scrutiny from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including communications studies, sociology and, most prominently, political science (Allen and Savigny 2012; Apostolidis and Williams 2004;Cepernich 2008;Entman 2012;Gamson 2001;Garment 1991;Lull and Hinerman 1997;Marion 2010;Puglisi and Snyder 2011;Sabato 1991;Sabato, et al 2000;Thompson 2000;Toepfl 2011;Tumber 1993Tumber , 2004. Given the frequent involvement of allegations that may result in criminal prosecution, it is remarkable that scandal has scarcely been researched by criminologists (though see Sherman 1978).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sir Jimmy Savile scandal: Child sexual abuse and institutional denial at the BBC

Greer

McLaughlin

2013

Crime, Media, Culture

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Savile was also a prolific sexual predator who for decades had exploited his BBC status to abuse teenage girls. As we demonstrate, this incendiary documentary triggered a news media feeding frenzy that in less than one week destroyed Savile's reputation and thrust the BBC -the institution that made him a star -into a multi-faceted, globally reported CSA scandal. This study has four purposes. First, we propose a model of institutional CSA scandals that can account for critical transitions between key phases in the scandal process. Permanent repository linkSecond, we apply this model to analyse the transition between the 'latent' and 'activated' phases of the Savile scandal. This transition corresponded with a dramatic transformation in the inferential structuring of Savile from 'national treasure', who had devoted decades to working with children, to 'prolific sexual predator', who spent decades abusing them. Third, we demonstrate how the BBC's denial of responsibility for Savile's sexual offending and its subsequent institutional cover-up triggered a 'trial by media' which in turn initiated the next phase in the scandal's development -'amplification'. Finally, we consider the significance of our analysis of the Sir Jimmy Savile scandal for understanding the activation and development of scandals more generally.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sir Jimmy Savile scandal: Child sexual abuse and institutional denial at the BBC

Greer

McLaughlin

2013

Crime, Media, Culture

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“…According to this model, the breach of faith that occurs is significant. When it comes to institutions such as those of the criminal justice system -institutions that are central to a society's law and government -Sherman argues the breach 'suggests something negative about the entire society ' (1978:61 However, it is more common that the meaning of the term is inferred and taken for granted rather than explained as a particular form of failure (see, e.g., Toepfl, 2011). It is most often conflated with corruption.…”

Section: Studying Scandalmentioning

confidence: 99%

A question of scandal? The police and the phone-hacking business

Mawby

2016

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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Scandals have featured consistently in the development and operation of public policing in England and Wales. However, criminologists have rarely explored scandal as a concept or its attempted management by criminal justice organisations. This article contributes to the filling of this gap with the intention of initiating debate on the utility of scandal as a conceptual tool for the analysis of policing and criminal justice. It identifies the core components of a scandal using an analytical framework informed by scandal research undertaken across disciplinary areas. Taking a case study approach, this framework is applied to the Leveson Inquiry which explored a combination of potentially scandalous episodes within the overarching scandal of phone-hacking. The article concludes that phone-hacking was a scandal at macro and micro levels under this framework yet damage to the reputation of the police was mitigated through active impression management and enduring characteristics of the police image.

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“…Accordingly, in the aftermath of the 2011/2012 protests, commentators have paid a great deal of attention to the legislative measures adopted by the Putin regime enacted to quash popular protest. These measures have included a clampdown on foreign financing of NGOs (Lavinski 2013), measures to curb freedom of speech and the right to public assembly (Lanskoy and Suthers 2013, 77-81) and the redirection of popular discontent towards foreign entities (Toepfl 2011). In other words, fitting with the above-mentioned structural tradition, it has been common to focus on repressive methods that have reduced political opportunity structures (e.g.…”

Section: Forms Of Contention: From Dissentful To Consentfulmentioning

confidence: 99%

State–society relations in contemporary Russia: new forms of political and social contention

Cheskin

March

2015

East European Politics

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Much existing analysis of Russian state-society relations focuses on public, active forms of contention such as the "opposition" and protest movements. There is need for a more holistic perspective which adds study of a range of overt, "co-opted", and hidden forms of interaction to this focus on public contention. A theoretical and empirical basis for understanding state-society relations in today's Russia involves broadening the concept of "contentious politics" to include models of "consentful" as well as "dissentful" contention. A diffused model of contentious politics can situate claim-making along the axes of consentful and dissentful motivations, and compliant and contentious behaviours.Keywords: Russia; contentious politics; protest; opposition; civil society Prior to the contested 2011-2012 elections in Russia, many commentators held the view that Russian society did not pose an existential threat to the country's political status quo (Gel'man 2013, 6). While sporadic protests had occurred before 2011, they had been largely confined to specific geographic areas and tended to focus on relatively narrow issues (Evans 2012; Koesel and Bunce 2012, 412). Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that the vibrant street protests after the elections caught most analysts by surprise (Volkov 2012, 55). Since then, there has been a compensatory focus on new forms of opposition and public protest, evidence of instability within the Putin regime and a (partial) movement away from the perception of the Russian state as an efficiently operating presidential vertikal (e.g. Monaghan 2012; Greene 2013; Judah 2013).Much of the existing analysis, however, continues to focus on public, active forms of contention such as the "opposition" and social, issue-based movements that mobilise public protest (e.g. Koesel and Bunce 2012;Robertson 2013;White 2013;Ross 2015). These accounts provide a vitally important perspective on the interactions between state and society in contemporary Russia. However, as Evans (2012, 234) notes, "We should not expect that the study of groups in Russia that carry out public protests against the decisions of those in authority can give us a comprehensive understanding of Russian civil society". Chebankova (2015, 244) Vol. 31, No. 3, 261-273, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21599165.2015 Downloaded by [University of Glasgow] at 09:34 26 August 2015 arguing that researchers "tend to confine their analysis to the visible side of mobilisation, thus ignoring its latent dimensions". This special issue therefore joins a growing body of works that seek to switch the analytical lens more fully from state-centric analyses focusing on the mechanics of the Putinite presidential system towards the emergent Russian politics "from below". Such analyses (e.g. Beznosova and Sundstrom 2009; Chebankova 2009; Robertson 2010; Gladarev and Lonkila 2013) make several common arguments: (a) there has long been greater political contention in post-Soviet Russia than many acknowledge; (b) such contention is often more marked at loc...

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Managing public outrage: Power, scandal, and new media in contemporary Russia

Cited by 65 publications

References 11 publications

The Sir Jimmy Savile scandal: Child sexual abuse and institutional denial at the BBC

The Sir Jimmy Savile scandal: Child sexual abuse and institutional denial at the BBC

A question of scandal? The police and the phone-hacking business

State–society relations in contemporary Russia: new forms of political and social contention

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