It is true that the scandals in the history and even nowadays have an obvious impact on the society. No matter in politics, academic, or other areas, it always attracts the public’s attention. According to the author, the scandals in any area can be useful to society. He also asserts that the scandals focus the public’s attention in the ways that no speaker or reformer ever could. From my point of view, I fundamentally agree with the author.
First of all, the media coverage has played an important role in focusing the public’s attention on the scandals. Mass media is the main access of public to connect with the society. We get to know the world by the media’s coverage of the events happened. It seems like that people to some extent rely on the media to get information. Indeed, media always report some unusual things to attract the public’s attention such as scandals. Since people are always curious about the famous persons’ privacies, so the scandals which are embroidered by the media become more appealing to the audience. Take the characteristics of the media in to consideration; it is hard to report some speeches and reformers’ contributions vividly because such events are all about theory. People may find such event dull and abstruse. Thus the scandals which are benefited by the media coverage can successfully attract the public’s attention while the speaker or reformers cannot.
In the second place, scandals can reveal some critic social problems to the public. People can realize the unhealthy shade of the society. For instance, the Enron Company which is listed as the 7th largest company in the united State has the fraudulent accounting techniques. Another big company Arthur Anderson has done the fraudulent accounting with the Enron. The economic scandals remind people the credibility in the society. Such false accounting threatened the security if the country and undermined the public’s benefits. After the legislation punished the companies, people will get to understand that earning profits from a legal way is more important than the benefits. The society needs credibility to become flourishing. The function of such scandals is positive.
Thirdly, the positive function of the scandals can prevent the government to produce such scandals to the public. It can be a supervision of the government. Since the influence of the scandals is extensive and lasting, if the government made some scandals will cause the incredibility of the public. Thus, the governments will loss the authority. For example, in 2003 the government of Guangdong province in china has blocked the information of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in order to get rid of the responsibility. Either did the government take action to control the situation of SARS. Such scandals undermined the confidence of the public to the government.They will probably loss the credibility of the authority. When such situation formed, it is very negative for the government to executive any laws or rules. In order to win the public’s credibility and cooperation, the government will seriously avoid the scandals.The leaders will try their best to keep the society peaceful and in order.
To sum up, the scandals have positive functions to the society. They can disclose the society’s problems to the public and prevent the government to be dishonesty to the people. It is also true that the scandals by the help of the media coverage reach an obvious function that no speakers and reformers can do. In addition, excessive notice of the scandals will distort the public’s value system. In order to use the scandals to spur the society develop in regular and healthy way, we should pay proper attention to the scandals.