Values and the construction of scandal - Pozner & Hannigan (2023)

How relational publics become scandal audiences

Relational publics

Strangers who cohere because they are reacting the same to symbolic objects

Deplorability

A transgression that violates the values of the audience

Three stage model of scandal creation

1. Scandal entrepreneurship and disruptive publicity

2. Activation of relational publics

3. Constitution of a scandal audience

Scandal entrepreneur

Exposes behaviour and alerts media

Scandal audience

Unified relational publics that activate the scandal

Case 1. No scandal

Transgression that is framed in a way that does not violate core values of any relational public

Case 2. Recursive scandal

Transgression that violates values held by several publics

Case 3. Instant scandal

Transgression that violates near-universal, widely shared values