The Unleashed Scandal: The End of Control in the Digital Age

Bernhard Poerksen · Hanne Detel

Jun 2014 · Andrews UK Limited

About this eBook

In an age of ubiquitous digital media and permanent mutual observation scandals are omnipresent. Everybody can release them, everybody can become their victim. Videos on mobile phones terminate careers, Twitter messages generate outrage, and SMS messages turn into evidence. Documents of embarrassment and public disgrace today display a novel kind of lightness and agility. They can be copied in no time, spread very quickly, resist all censorship - and in the extreme case stir up worldwide indignation. The consequence: the reputation of the powerful and the powerless, of enterprises and states, can be destroyed in record time. In order to illustrate these considerations the books describes recent case-(hi)stories, discussing public figures such as Tiger Woods and Anthony Weiner, the powerful and the helpless that suddenly find themselves in a worldwide pillory.

About the author

Bernhard Poerksen is professor of media studies at the University of Tübingen, Germany. His research projects analyse the styles of impression and image management in politics and the media, he regularly contributes comments on current affairs and debates to newspapers, radio and television. In 2008 Bernhard Poerksen was chosen "Professor of the Year". Hanne Detel is research associate at the Department of Media Studies, University of Tübingen, Germany. She works at the intersection of practical journalism and media studies. Her primary research concerns are media theories, mediatisation, the Social Web, scandalisation and (unwanted) celebrity in the digital age.