Explaining Stigmatization of US President Donald Trump in News Media 12 Western Countries

Stigmatization is a common way for news media to punish politicians for undemocratic behavior, such as sexism, racism or democratic misconduct. While it is plausible that stigmatization varies in accordance with the characteristics of media landscapes, a cross-national investigation is still lacking. Drawing on a systematic content analysis of news coverage of controversial right-wing United States president Donald Trump (2013-2018; N= 35,485) in twelve Western countries, this study maps and explains cross-national in stigmatization. We find that stigmatization is most common in countries with low levels of journalistic professionalism. The ties between parties and press do not matter, with the difference in stigmatization between rightand left-leaning newspapers being roughly the same in all countries. Stigmatization is also more prevalent former authoritarian countries, but this does not affect the relation between newspapers’ political leaning and stigmatization. Together, our study reveals substantial cross-national differences in opportunity structure for controversial politicians.