Media scandals are journalistic firebombs. From the perspective of the sociology of knowledge, Steffen Burkhardt shows how scandals have been shaping communities into powerful societies for over two millennia - and bringing them down again. The genealogy of the scandal spans an arc from the religious communities of antiquity to the media society of the 21st century. With the invention of the mass media, scandals have developed into a dangerous weapon of political influence: as an information virus with revolutionary explosive power. The study explains how media scandals stage alleged grievances behind the facades of power and update the social self-image. On the battlefield of public morality, interest groups are fighting for symbolic authority, political influence and economic domination. But how exactly do scandals in the media come about? How can they be controlled? And how can it be prevented? Using constructivism, discourse, narration and systems theory, Burkhardt analyzes the functions of media scandals for society's collective management of difference and identity. Using prominent cases, he vividly shows the complex discourses in which journalists, PR consultants and scandal victims from politics, business, culture, sports and the media fight for public staging sovereignty. The basic work creates the basis for interdisciplinary scandal research, which for the first time also integrates the journalistic production processes as well as the strategies of addressing and politicizing scandals in the media public. Their empirical application has a high practical relevance for journalism and crisis communication. Biography Dr. Steffen Burkhardt is Deputy Academic Director of the Journalism program at the Hamburg Media School and researches quality journalism as a communication scientist. Notes: New product