Ukraine as a corrupt ally: Revisiting indexing and cascading activation

This study applies indexing and the cascading activation model of framing to analyze US press coverage of corruption in Ukraine before and after the Russian invasion. These theories posit that journalists typically possess limited independence in war reporting due to their reliance on official sources. Yet indexing and cascading activation have not been applied to the ideologically complex situation in which an ally under attack is known to be corrupt. The authors conducted an analysis of New York Times , Washington Post , and Wall Street Journal coverage from one year before commencement of the war to one year after. US journalists indexed leaders of coalition partners more than the US administration after the war began. The content analysis and a supplemental textual analysis also reveal journalistic attention to average Ukrainian citizens coping with corruption. These findings warrant including coalition partners in indexing and average citizens of allied countries in cascading activation.