This book examines how scandal allegations have been managed in the contemporary era in the United States and how understandings of the impact of scandal on political credibility have changed over time. It incorporates prominent scandals, at both federal and state level, in which sudden and unexpected revelations created an uncertain political environment. The primary focus is on sex scandals and how damage limitation strategies have been utilized in order to try to limit and accommodate a demise in political standing. The book considers how damage limitation strategies were utilized, the core components of each, and their impact on the political standing of the individuals involved. Rather than marking the end of a political journey, scandal increasingly appears to be an issue that can be perceived as a temporary impediment in a political career.
“I’ll take my share of the blame. I only ask that he take his.” In Bringing Down the Colonel, the journalist Patricia Miller tells the story of Madeline Pollard, an unlikely nineteenth-century women’s rights crusader. After an affair with a prominent politician left her “ruined,” Pollard brought the man—and the hypocrisy of America’s control of women’s sexuality—to trial. And, surprisingly, she won. Pollard and the married Colonel Breckinridge began their decade-long affair when she was just a teenager. After the death of his wife, Breckinridge asked for Pollard’s hand—and then broke off the engagement to marry another woman. But Pollard struck back, suing Breckinridge for breach of promise in a shockingly public trial. With premarital sex considered irredeemably ruinous for a woman, Pollard was asserting the unthinkable: that the sexual morality of men and women should be judged equally. Nearly 125 years after the Breckinridge-Pollard scandal, America is still obsessed with women’s sexual morality. And in the age of Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein, we’ve witnessed fraught public reckonings with a type of sexual exploitation unnervingly similar to that experienced by Pollard. Using newspaper articles, personal journals, previously unpublished autobiographies, and letters, Bringing Down the Colonel tells the story of one of the earliest women to publicly fight back.
Theatre scandals may cause dynamic changes within cultural systems. The case studies in this volume present a wide cultural and chronological variety of such scandals, illustrating the various causes, processes and interactions that characterize these shocking moments in theatre history.
In its exploration of some of the most influential, popular, or critically acclaimed television dramas since the year 2000, this book documents how modern television dramas reflect our society through their complex narratives about prevailing economic, political, security, and social issues. Television dramas have changed since the turn of the 21st century—for the good, many would say, as a result of changes in technology, the rise of cable networks, and increased creative freedom. This book approaches the new golden age of television dramas by examining the programs that define the first 15 years of the new century through their complex narratives, high production value, star power, popularity, and enthusiastic fan culture. After an introduction that sets the stage for the book's content, thematic sections present concise chapters that explore key connections between television dramas and elements of 21st-century culture. The authors explore Downton Abbey as a distraction from contemporary class struggles, patriarchy and the past in Game of Thrones and Mad Men, and portrayals of the "dark hero protagonist" in The Sopranos, Dexter, and Breaking Bad, as a few examples of the book's coverage. With its multidisciplinary perspectives on a variety of themes—terrorism, race/class/gender, family dynamics, and sociopolitical and socioeconomic topics— this book will be relevant across the social sciences and cultural and media studies courses.
From those who insist that Barack Obama is Muslim to the European legislators who go to extraordinary lengths to ban items of clothing worn by a tiny percentage of their populations, Gary Younge shows, in this fascinating, witty, and provocative examination of the enduring legacy and obsession with identity in politics and everyday life, that how we define ourselves informs every aspect of our social, political, and personal lives. Younge -- a black British male of Caribbean descent living in Brooklyn, New York, who speaks fluent Russian and French -- travels the planet in search of answers to why identity is so combustible. From Tiger Woods's legacy to the scandal over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, he finds that identity is inescapable, but solidarity may not be as elusive as we fear. We are more alike than we are unalike. But the way we are unalike matters. To be male in Saudi Arabia, Jewish in Israel or white in Europe confers certain powers and privileges that those with other identities do not have. In other words, identity can represent a material fact in itself. As Gary Younge demonstrates in this classic book, now featuring a new introduction,, how we define ourselves affects every part of our lives: from violence on the streets to international terrorism; from changes in our laws to whom we elect; from our personal safety to military occupations. Moving between fascinating memoir and searing analysis, from beauty contests in Ireland to the personal views of Tiger Woods, from the author's own terrifying student days in Paris to how race and gender affect one's voting choices, Gary Younge makes surprising and enlightening connections and a devastating critique of the way our society really works.
In our current age of big business, it seems that everyone is looking for ways to make more money, acquire more power, and be more successful. However, from start-up companies to corporate empires that stretch back centuries, the temptations of greed and power often lead to corruption, fraud, unfair business practices, loophole-hunting, and even murder. The often shocking nature of business culture and society's fascination with it puts corporate scandals in the spotlight every year around the world. We've gathered the stories from some of the most unbelievably bold, brilliant, and ultimately doomed corporate scandals in history, giving you a fast-paced ride through the dark side of big business.
The author argues that "media neglect most corruption, providing too little, not too much scandal coverage; scandals arise from rational, controlled processes, not emotional frenzies -- and when scandals happen, it's not the media but government and political parties that drive the process and any excesses that might occur; significant scandals are difficult for news organizations to initiate and harder for them to maintain and bring to appropriate closure; for these reasons cover-ups and lying often work, and truth remains essentially unrecorded, unremembered"--P. [4] of cover.
Mitte März 2018 skandalisierten Medien die Datenberatungsfirma Cambridge Analytica und den Milliardenkonzern Facebook wegen fragwürdiger Methoden, die während der Brexit-Kampagne und des US-Wahlkampfs 2016 Anwendung fanden. Die Affäre um die beiden Unternehmen machte deutlich, dass viele Skandalfälle nicht an Ländergrenzen Halt machen und je nach kulturellem Hintergrund unterschiedlich beurteilt werden. "Scandalogy 2: Cultures of Scandals – Scandals in Culture" vereint aktuellste Forschungsergebnisse internationaler Forscher zum Themenfeld "Skandale". Ein besonderer Fokus liegt dabei auf der Skandalberichterstattung, etwa durch eine Langzeitstudie in Großbritannien oder durch eine Analyse der Berichterstattung über Spionage im Kalten Krieg in den USA. Andere Beiträge widmen sich Online-Skandalisierungformen wie dem sogenannten "Shit Storm". Der Sammelband richtet sich an Forscher und Studenten, insbesondere in den Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaften, der Politikwissenschaft und Soziologie. Die Befunde sind außerdem für Berufspraktiker, vor allem für PR-Berater, Pressesprecher und Krisenkommunikationsexperten, von hohem Interesse.
Die Enthüllung der Panama Papers im April 2016 machte erneut deutlich, welche globale Wirkmacht Skandale entfalten können. Skandale bringen Politiker zu Fall, stürzen Wirtschaftslenker und beenden Sportkarrieren. Sie kommen in jedem gesellschaftlichen Feld vor, führen zu enormer medialer Berichterstattung und zu einer lebhaften öffentlichen Diskussion über Werte und Normen – sie sind ein soziales Phänomen. Als solches stellen Skandale sehr häufig auch einen Forschungsgegenstand unterschiedlicher Wissenschaften dar: Politikwissenschaftler analysieren zum Beispiel die Funktionsfähigkeit von politischen Regeln und Institutionen, die Kommunikationswissenschaft untersucht mögliche Wirkungen von Skandalberichterstattung und den Verlauf von Affären in unterschiedlichen Medien, in der Literaturwissenschaft werden Skandalautoren und ihr öffentliches Verhalten thematisiert, die Soziologie blickt auf den Geltungsbereich gesellschaftlicher Werte und Normen, die sich durch Skandaldiskurse verändern können. Der Band Scandalogy vereint Beiträge internationaler Forscherinnen und Forscher zum Themenfeld ›Skandal‹. Er präsentiert sowohl empirische Studien als auch theoretische Erkenntnisse, die 2016 bei der 1st International Conference in Scandalogy an der Universität Bamberg präsentiert wurden. Die Bandbreite reicht von kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Studien bis hin zu literaturwissenschaftlichen Analysen. Die Vielzahl der Fächer, die sich mit dem sozialen Phänomen des Skandals beschäftigen, zeigt, dass ›Skandalogie‹ ein eigenständiger Forschungsbereich ist.