Abstract Scandals involving heads of state are generally the staple diet of news media. Internationally, the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” sex escapades are some of the most memorable. In South Africa, scandals that marred former president Jacob Zuma’s term of office have continued to be the centre of attention long after he resigned as president. During his presidency, Zuma became one of the most covered (reported in the news) leaders across media platforms, in South Africa and beyond. This was largely due to allegations including corruption, his relationship with the Gupta family, and misuse of government funds to renovate his private property. Evoked in the media by various labels of controversy, the media frenzy dominated headlines in South Africa at the time. This article presents an account of how journalists actively construct labels for controversy associated with newsworthiness. The article makes a theoretical link between labels of controversies and news values, and argues that these labels are, in spite of their significance, the most understudied phenomena in mainstream journalism literature today. Fifty-eight news articles were examined by means of content analysis for the labels that journalists constructed.

中文翻译：

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参照政治丑闻重新构想新闻价值和争议标签

摘要 涉及国家元首的丑闻通常是新闻媒体的主食。在国际上，比尔克林顿-莫妮卡莱温斯基丑闻和意大利前总理西尔维奥贝卢斯科尼的“bunga bunga”性爱出轨是一些最令人难忘的。在南非，影响前总统雅各布·祖马 (Jacob Zuma) 任期的丑闻在他辞去总统职务后很长一段时间内仍是关注的焦点。在担任总统期间，祖马成为南非及其他地区媒体平台上报道最多（新闻报道）的领导人之一。这主要是由于腐败、他与古普塔家族的关系以及滥用政府资金翻新他的私人财产等指控。由于各种争议标签在媒体上引起了轰动，媒体狂热在当时占据了南非的头条新闻。本文介绍了记者如何为与新闻价值相关的争议积极构建标签。这篇文章在争议标签和新闻价值之间建立了理论联系，并认为这些标签尽管具有重要意义，但却是当今主流新闻文学中研究最少的现象。58 篇新闻文章通过内容分析对记者构建的标签进行了检查。