Scandals focus our attention on problems in a way no speaker or reformer ever could- it is inescapably true that scandal sells. Scandals get people talking, scandals get our attention. In the parlance of television and marketing, scandals and drama get ‘eyeballs’. Speakers and reformers, however charismatic and passionate, may make an impact- but it is hard for one to have the kind of drawing power a scandal would have. You can count on news channels to cover a scandal, milking it dry, a deluge of opinion pieces in newspaper columns to follow, celebrities weighing in with their say on the matter- and everyone hears about it. The issue at hand becomes something everyone hears about and talks about. With that, more people will reflect on an issue and think about it and it becomes a topic that’s hot, current and relevant. …show more content…
Human stories, stories that a controversial, stories that implicate the powerful and famous, stories that are shocking and unprecedented- all have a natural draw for us. It has been said that gossip is a true human universal, and scandal, well, appeals to the same part of us that gossip does. It is an incontrovertible fact that controversy garners attention. The Streisand effect, named for Barbara Streisand, illustrates this. Barbara Streisand, an actress who tried to sue a satellite imagery company for the images of her residence available publicly, had the whole point of her venture backfire when the images she was suing the company about attracted a lot more attention than it otherwise would have owing to the controversy. The principle holds in this case