This book illuminates the personal experience of being at the centre of a media scandal. It applies ethnological perspectives to empirical materials from a Swedish context to highlight the existential level of the phenomenon. How does it feel to be exposed through scandalisation? How does such an experience affect a person's everyday life? These are the urgent and fascinating questions that the book addresses. It also highlights the fusion between face-to-face communication and traditional news media. Gossip and rumour must be included in the idea of the media system for us to be able to understand the power of a media scandal, a finding leads to a critique of earlier research.
'In a world of social-media gossip and rumours, this book takes a refreshingly new and ethnographic approach to media scandals, focusing on the experiences of the hunted. We get a fascinating analysis of how everyday life and media are intertwined, and how emotional reactions and moral issues are handled. Mia-Marie Hammarlin's book is not only a great read, it breaks new ground in terms of both methods and theory.' Orvar Löfgren, Professor Emeritus, Lund University What is it like to be at the centre of a media scandal? Bringing ethnological and phenomenological perspectives to bear on cases from a Swedish context, Exposed highlights and explores the existential dimensions of this increasingly common occurrence. The book draws on interviews with politicians, journalists, and private individuals to provide a compelling account of how media scandals affect their subjects' everyday life. At the same time, it presents new insights on the fusion between face-to-face interpersonal communication and traditional news media. A scandal gains momentum through its audiences - their engagement in the moral story determines how long it will survive in the public domain. To understand the formation and power of media scandals in the twenty-first century, the book argues, we must extend our idea of media circuits to include gossip and rumour, which are increasingly expressed through activities in digital forums. Oral interpersonal communication does not disappear when new communication possibilities arise; it may in fact be invigorated by them. Meticulously researched and theoretically sophisticated, Exposed makes an important contribution to the field of media and communication studies. At the same time, its vivid accounts of the lived experience of scandals ensure that journalists and a general audience will find it a riveting read.
