Anatomy of scandal: how, why and with what social consequences

However, the mere receipt of scandalous information and its dissemination is not enough to provoke changes of social and legal framework. Such effects can occur if the scandal is accompanied by the combination of social circumstances stimulated by mass media: a total visibility of the event; the interpretation of the event as violating the generally accepted moral norms, traditions and values; mystery of the event, consisting of one or more items that must be disclosed. This work usually goes to journalists. Their work in these cases is legitimated by heterogenic unambiguous audience, not its individual segments, despite real or potential guilty of the perpetrator. Thus the disclosing Žurnalistikos tyrimai • Mokslo darbų žurnalas (Komunikacija ir informacija) • 2010 Nr. 3 52 work of media representatives is justified. To sum it up, although the scandals are not targeted or pre-professional interest of the journalists, but the media representatives support and stimulate the scandal, taking the advantages of the difficult crises communication. Typical sign of the scandal as the phenomenon of mass communication is moral panics caused in the society, which requires the correspondence between media and political agenda on the one side and public response and political action from the elites, on the other side. The public response is realized not only by the means of communication, but is taken in accordance with powers of compulsory actions of political elites. So pedophilia scandal has caused serious legal and social changes in society that led to the appropriate domestic policy decisions: law enforcement reforms, the rotation of heads, the faster adoption of the amendments to laws. Pedophilia scandal has highlighted the problem of strong pre-trial procedures and publication of data on juvenile problems in the media regulation, which should draw the attention of professional journalists’ organizations and the legislature