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Abstract

Sociologists have tended to take insufficient account of the importance of emotions to the social power of the institution of media, particularly as altered by the emergence of social media in the current media ecology. This paper compensates for this neglect by means of a brief illustrative case study of the effect of social media on the public reception of the 2011 Sepp Blatter racism scandal and of other ‘race-related’ scandals in the UK. In proposing media scandals’ wider sociological significance regarding the dynamic, multi-accented relationships between emotions and power, it analyses how England’s prevailing climate of ‘postcolonial guilt’ was reinforced and conveyed through social media networks.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Politcal Power on 4 Dec 2013, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/2158379X.2013.846553.
Publisher Keywords:	emotions; media scandal; power; racism scandal; social media
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs > Sociology & Criminology

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