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

Bernhard Poerksen; Hanne Detel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845407199 ISBN 13: 9781845407193

Publisher: Imprint Academic, 2014

Synopsis

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 this title

About the Author

Hanne Detel, *1983, is research associate at the Department of Media Studies, University of Tübingen, Germany. Her primary research concerns are media theories, mediatisation, the Social Web, scandalisation, and (unwanted) celebrity in the digital age. She studied journalism and communication as well as public law in Hamburg and Stellenbosch/ South Africa ― on a scholarship awarded by the German National Academic Foundation. In parallel, she completed her practical journalism training and worked with the German Press Agency (dpa).

Review

"The authors have a broad approach and touch upon issues of privacy, spectacle, defamation, anonymity, scandal, surveillance and the middle space between public and private."

(Michael Karlsson Digital Journalism)

"The Unleashed Scandalis a bold attempt to tie everything from Bradley Manning, Anthony Weiner, Abu Ghraib, Tiger Woods and Monica Lewinsky into the idea that we're losing control of our data and our image at the same time... [It] does a good job of pointing out how, in the digital age, embarrassment and disgrace can fly around the world before the unlucky target has even got out of bed, let alone got dressed and tried to nail down the truth."

(Mary Branscombe ZDNet)

"The authors... have written an analysis that is especially timely given the recent (May 2014) European high court decision allowing people to control what is said about them online... As our reviewer put it two years ago, 'this book is about loss of control and the conventional scandal and reputation management... [it] is a must.'"

(Chris Sterling Communication Booknotes Quarterly)

Edition details

• Publisher: Imprint Academic
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1845407199
• ISBN 13: 9781845407193
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 220