0910G[North America Flying] Issue185 by haunteagle

haunteagleUID: 2609432

TOPIC: ISSUE185 - "Scandals-whether in politics, academia, or other areas-can be useful. They focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could."

The speaker asserts that the scandals are very useful because they can attract public attention to focal social problems in ways no other media can compare. Generally, I agree that the scandals can turn public attention toward specific social problems like the corruption of high-ranking officials or sex abuse of superstars. However, as scandals always overemphasize the moral corruption of individuals and underestimate the function of the public, it is of no use in the solution of enduring and comprehensive problems such as violence, abortion, and drug trafficking.

Admittedly, scandal can be useful in the supervision of officials and superstars in terms of corruptions and sex. According to socialists, we human beings have an instinct intent to talking about the drawbacks of others. Therefore, to pander this desire, and making profit, the media focus their cameras on the well-known character to record their wrongdoings. The spotlight will remind the officials that everything they do will be recorded and presented to the public. This can effectively prevent the high-ranking officials from committing crime. Nixon and Clinton have proved the power of the media on their own. And now, as we know from newspapers and TVs, few choose to be the hero in scandals.

However, as discussed above, because the media and the public have a strong desire of scandals, some peccadilloes, or even some reasonable acts may fall in the pit of criticism. To cater for the need of reader, entertainment magazine often irresponsibly publish some scandal of film stars. Usually, these so-called scandals are delicately fabricated stories. Through distorting the original meaning of the speakers and entitling new meaning of some common words, these media can produce a series of striking "news" to make high profit. Those fabricated scandals have already caused severe social problems. The suicide of Korean superstar Choi Jin Sil is a convincing example. Before Choi’s suicide, some spread rumors on the Internet that Choi has once practiced usury. Eventually, Choi cannot endure the public criticism and chose to commit suicide. Many cases tell us that this kind of scandal can only deteriorate the social morale and make public do not believe the media. Media lose its original intention of supervision and became the tool of making profit.

Moreover, even the authentic scandals have its natural deficiency --they focus on famous individuals and overlook the public. Only famous individuals have scandals. If common people commit a crime, people may not regard it as a scandal. In other words, scandals are effective to only a small part of people in the society –famous ones. Media will choose to report the lover of Clinton rather than the starvation in Zambia, the divorce of Britney rather than the rampant drug trafficking in Mexico and the death of Jackson rather than the riot in china. Because we have the desire of hearing the wrongdoing of famous people, not our neighbors’. Therefore, reporting scandals has no contribution to the solution of enduring social problems. After all, famous people constitute a small fraction of social class, and the majority of people decide the moral trend of the society. In short, concentrating on scandals is of no use in the improving of whole moral level of the society.

All in all, reporting scandals can help supervise the some famous people such as officials and superstars. The media help them from being corrupted when confronted with great profit. Yet the scandals cannot help improve the whole moral standard of the society because media has little deterrent force toward common people.